1. Donations swell for Seattle campus shooting hero
SEATTLE (AP) — More than $60,000 has been donated online for the victims and hero of the shooting that left one dead and two injured at a small Seattle university.
As of Sunday afternoon, a fundraising page for Jon Meis, a student who pepper-sprayed and tackled the gunman Thursday at Seattle Pacific University, had grossed more than $44,000. A fundraising page to cover the costs of Paul Lee’s funeral and Sarah Williams’ medical care is nearing $13,000. Another page started by Williams’ family had raised nearly $5,000. More donations are expected.
A lone gunman armed with a shotgun opened fire in a university building, killing 19-year-old Lee and wounding 19-year-old Williams, who remains hospitalized. The other injured student has been released from the hospital.
The 26-year-old suspect, Aaron Ybarra, is being held without bail. Police said in court documents that Ybarra, who has no known connection to the university, was planning to kill as many people as he could before committing suicide. The quick action by Meis likely saved lives, police said.
2. 2 officers, 3 others dead in Las Vegas shooting
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Two suspects shot and killed two police officers in an ambush at a Las Vegas restaurant Sunday before fatally shooting a third person and killing themselves inside a nearby Walmart, authorities said.
A man and woman walked into CiCi’s Pizza and shot at point-blank range officers Alyn Beck, 42, and Igor Soldo, 32, who were eating lunch, Las Vegas police officials said. One of the officers was able to fire back before he died, but it’s unclear if he hit the suspects, Sheriff Doug Gillespie of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.
One of the suspects yelled, “This is a revolution,” but the motive for the shooting remains under investigation, Las Vegas police spokesman Larry Hadfield told The Associated Press. He added that “we don’t know anything about the suspects yet.”
After shooting the officers, the suspects fled to the Walmart across the street, where they fatally shot a person inside the front door and exchanged gunfire with police before killing themselves in an apparent suicide pact, police said.
The female suspect shot the male suspect before killing herself, Gillespie said. The victim’s identity hasn’t been confirmed, and the suspects’ names haven’t been released. Both officers were taken to the hospital, but it was unclear if they died there or at the scene.
“It’s a tragic day,” Gillespie said. “But we still have a community to police, and we still have a community to protect. We will be out there doing it with our heads held high, but with an emptiness in our hearts.
3. Ex-military chief sworn in as Egypt’s president
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s former military chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, winner by a landslide in last month’s presidential election, was sworn into office Sunday nearly a year after he ousted the nation’s first freely elected leader.
The retired field marshal called for unity and hard work, while vowing that there would be no reconciliation with those who took up arms against the government and Egyptians. That was a thinly veiled reference to supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president el-Sissi removed last July, and Islamic militants waging attacks against the government.
“There will be reconciliation between the sons of our nation except those who had committed crimes against them or adopted violence,” el-Sissi said. “There will be no acquiescence or laxity shown to those who resorted to violence.”
He did not mention by name Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist group by the government last December. But el-Sissi’s rise coincides with detention of thousands and the killing of hundreds of Morsi supporters.
El-Sissi also vowed to fight corruption and appeared to make an overture to pro-democracy and secular youth activists, many of whom boycotted last month’s presidential election. They accuse the new president of reviving toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s police state, pointing to a law passed last year that restricts protests as well as the jailing of a number of well-known activists.
4. Bergdahl says he was tortured by Taliban captors
PARIS (AP) — U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has told people treating him at an American military medical facility in Germany that he was tortured, beaten and held in a cage by his Taliban captors in Afghanistan after he tried to escape, a senior U.S. official said Sunday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss what Bergdahl has revealed about the conditions of his captivity. The New York Times first reported on the matter.
The official said it was difficult to verify the accounts Bergdahl has given since his release a week ago.
Bergdahl, now 28, was captured in June 2009 after he disappeared from his infantry unit. He was held for nearly five years by Taliban militants.
Taliban spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday. On Friday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told The Associated Press by telephone that Bergdahl was held under “good conditions.” The claim could not be independently verified.
Military doctors at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center say that while Bergdahl is physically able to travel he’s not yet emotionally prepared to be reunited with his family. He has not yet spoken to his family.
It’s unclear when he may get to go home.
5. Insanity defense a longshot for Purdue suspect
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — An Indiana man’s decision to seek the insanity defense in the fatal shooting and stabbing of a Purdue University teaching assistant could create a challenging task for his attorney.
Cody Cousins is charged with murder in the Jan. 21 death of 21-year-old Andrew Boldt inside a Purdue classroom.
Cousins told Tippecanoe Superior Court Judge Thomas Busch last month that he was taking medication for treatment of schizophrenia. His attorney has filed formal notice that he’ll use the defense of mental disease or defect.
Prosecutors and psychologists told the Journal & Courier that such defenses seldom succeed in Indiana.
If a jury decides that Cousins was insane at the time of Boldt’s death, Cousins could be found either not guilty due to mental illness or guilty but mentally ill.
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Paaige Turner, Dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media to leave for Aurora University
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