Thursday, December 3, 2015
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Page 7A
SHOOTING: 10 of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition
Continued from 1A
his brother-in-law about a week ago.
He said he was in shock and had
“absolutely no idea why he would
do this.”
The attackers invaded the Inland
Regional Center about 60 miles east
of Los Angeles and began shooting
around 11 a.m. Wednesday. They
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that the San Bernardino County
Department of Public Health had
rented out for an employee banquet,
said Marybeth Feild, president and
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Police spokeswoman Sgt. Vicki
Cervantes said witnesses reported
seeing one to three gunmen.
“They came prepared to do
what they did, as if they were on a
mission,” Burguan, the police chief,
said.
Burguan said that someone had
left the morning event after “there
was some type of dispute,” but
investigators were not sure whether
that had anything to do with the
subsequent massacre in the Southern
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the large three-building complex,
several people locked themselves in
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be rescued by police. Some texted
or telephoned their loved ones and
whispered to them what was going
on.
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waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am
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daughter texted him.
Petit, choking back tears as he
read the text for reporters at the
scene, said his daughter works at the
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jobs, housing and transportation
and provide other services to people
with disabilities such as autism,
cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
According to its web page, the
center has a client base of more than
30,000 people with developmental
disabilities and their families. It is a
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its kind in California with about 670
employees.
Ten of the wounded were hospi-
talized in critical condition, and
three were in serious condition, Fire
Chief Tom Hannemann said.
That the violence happened at a
place dedicated to helping people
with developmental disabilities
— even if they were not targeted
of Redlands saw a vehicle matching
that description. Public records show
the home is a possible residence of a
family member of Farook.
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a gunbattle broke out around 3 p.m.,
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a minor injury.
The aftermath of the shootout
was captured live by television news
helicopters.
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handgun and was wearing tactical
clothing, including vests stuffed
with ammunition magazines, said
Agent Meredith Davis of the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives. An explosive device
was found at the social service
center, and during the car chase,
the couple hurled a fake bomb — a
metal pipe stuffed with cloth — out
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President Barack Obama was
briefed on the attack by his homeland
security adviser. He said it was too
early to know the shooters’ motives
but urged the country to take steps
to reduce mass shootings, including
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
stricter gun laws and stronger back-
People who were near a shooting rampage at a social services center that killed multiple people and ground checks.
wounded others arrive at a community center to reunite with their family members in San Bernardi-
“The one thing we do know is
no, Calif., Wednesday.
that we have a pattern now of mass
shootings in this country that has no
“The one thing we do parallel anywhere else in the world,
there’s some steps we could
know is that we have and
take, not to eliminate every one of
a pattern now of mass these mass shootings, but to improve
odds that they don’t happen as
shootings in this coun- the
frequently,” Obama told CBS.
The shooting sounded like “an
try that has no paral-
organized plot,” and preliminary
lel anywhere else in
information seems to indicate that
“this is personal, and there seems
the world.”
to suggest some element of revenge
— President Barack Obama and retaliation,” said Erroll G.
Southers, director of Homegrown
with their hands up so that police Violent Extremism Studies at the
could search them and make sure 8QLYHUVLW\ RI 6RXWKHUQ &DOLIRUQLD
the attackers weren’t trying to slip and a former FBI agent.
out.
“What it says to me, it’s someone
They had indeed escaped. One who’s familiar with the facility, it’s
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
witness, Glenn Willwerth, who runs someone who knew exactly what
Law enforcement search for a suspect in a mass shooting at a a business across the street, said he room they were going to go to.
Southern California social services center on Wednesday in San heard 10 to 15 shots and then saw an
They knew exactly which way they
Bernardino, Calif.
689ZLWKEODFNHGRXWZLQGRZVSXOO needed to escape,” Southers said.
— made it even harder for some to somebody would come in and start out “very calmly, very slowly” and “They’ve done their homework.”
drive off.
shooting.”
comprehend.
The social services center has two
As the manhunt dragged on, large buildings that require a badge
FBI agents and other law
“These are all disabled kids, very
disabled,” said Sherry Esquerra, enforcement authorities converged VWRUHV RI¿FH EXLOGLQJV DQG VFKRROV to get in, said Sheela Stark, a member
who was searching for her daughter on the center and searched room to were locked down in the city, and of its board of trustees. However, the
and son-in-law, both of whom room for the attackers. Triage units roads were blocked off.
conference room where many public
About four hours later, with police events take place — including the
work at the center. “She gets all the were set up outside, and people were
services she possibly could for these wheeled away on stretchers. Others ORRNLQJ IRU D GDUN 689 RI¿FHUV banquet Wednesday — is usually
kids. So I just don’t understand why were marched from the building staking out a home in the nearby city left open when visitors are expected.
Ex-wife says Colorado Planned Parenthood
shooting suspect vandalized another clinic
By BRUCE SMITH
and SADIE GURMAN
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The
man accused of killing three people
at a Colorado Planned Parenthood
clinic left a decades-long trail of
broken marriages, scant social
connections and a reputation for
religious zealotry that didn’t match
his yen for gambling and extramar-
ital affairs.
New court documents and
interviews reveal Robert Lewis
Dear as an occasionally violent,
fundamentalist loner who was
known to nurse a grudge. He had
one for at least 20 years against
abortion providers, going so far as
to put glue in the locks of a clinic in
Charleston years earlier, a common
protest technique among activists
trying to shut down abortion
clinics.
But still unknown is what
caused Dear, 57, to escalate from
petty vandalism to the fusillade
he is accused of unleashing at the
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he rambled about “no more baby
parts” after his arrest. Colorado
Springs police have refused to
disclose a motive for Dear’s
violence, but there’s mounting
evidence that Dear was deeply
concerned about abortion.
Dear’s
ex-wife,
Barbara
Mescher Micheau, told The Asso-
ciated Press on Wednesday that
her former husband came home
one day bragging about gluing the
doors of a clinic. Micheau, who
lives in Moncks Corner, South
Carolina, said Dear never talked
much about Planned Parenthood,
although “obviously he was against
abortion.”
“He was always plotting
revenge against people he felt
did him wrong and you know it
didn’t take much for him to feel
like somebody did him wrong,”
Micheau said. “So he would spend
a lot of time trying to get back at
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get back at people.”
Micheau was Dear’s second of
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she described him as angry and
isolated.
Micheau said Dear had no
friends, according to the document.
He would listen to music on
headphones for hours, ignoring
her. He’d vanish for gambling trips
Daniel Owen/The Gazette via AP, Pool
Colorado Springs shooting suspect, Robert Dear, right, appears
via video before Judge Gilbert Martinez, with public defender
Dan King, at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center for this
irst court appearance, where he was told he faces irst degree
murder charges.
to Las Vegas or Atlantic City and
suddenly explode in anger at home,
kicking her and pulling her hair.
“Rob’s anger erupts into fury
in a matter of seconds and is
alarming,” she wrote. “You have to
constantly monitor his emotional
state.”
She added that he appeared
devoutly religious.
“He claims to be a Christian
and is extremely evangelistic, but
he does not follow the Bible in
his actions,” Micheau wrote. “He
says as long as he believes he will
be saved, he can do whatever he
pleases. He is obsessed with the
world coming to an end.”
Dear’s problems were evident
even before their marriage ended.
He jumped between jobs in
fast-food management before
joining the South Carolina electric
company Santee Cooper. There
“he got in trouble a lot and played
hooky a lot” before he eventually
quit and became an artist’s repre-
sentative, selling prints wholesale
to art galleries, Micheau said. “He
liked the freedom of being his own
boss and not having anyone to
answer to,” she wrote in the divorce
complaint. Money was tight and
she said her former husband used
his money for “personal plea-
sures,” such as a motorcycle and
an expensive gun, rather than their
bills that piled up.
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were separated, he was arrested in
North Charleston, South Carolina,
on a charge of criminal sexual
conduct after a woman said he
put a knife to her neck, forced her
into her apartment and sexually
assaulted her after hitting her in the
mouth. No records show how the
case was ultimately handled.
Dear also married Pamela Ross,
who told The New York Times
that he didn’t seem overly zealous,
standing against abortion but not
dwelling on it. Court records show
they divorced in 2001. Neighbors
who lived beside Dear’s former
Walterboro, South Carolina, home
say he hid food in the woods as
if he was a survivalist, warning
neighbors about government
spying. One neighbor put up a
wooden fence separating their land
because Dear liked to skinny dip.
Dear also lived part of the time
in a cabin with no electricity or
running water in Black Mountain,
North Carolina.
About a year later he moved
again, having convinced another
woman he met in South Carolina
to live with him in his white trailer
marked with a cross on a desolate
stretch of land in Hartsel, Colo-
rado, ringed by Rocky Mountains.
Living more than 60 miles west
of the clinic in Colorado Springs,
Dear rarely waved to neighbors,
who saw him heading into the
mountains on an ATV to gather
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Relatives of Dear’s girlfriend,
Stephanie Bragg, said they hadn’t
heard from her much since they
moved.
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Budget talks hit snag over environment, refugees
WASHINGTON (AP) — Talks on a massive, government-wide
spending bill hit a snag Wednesday as Republicans pressed demands to
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Democrats, whose votes will
be needed to carry the $1.1 trillion
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rejected the initial offer from top
Republicans. With little more than
a week to pass a measure to avert
a government shutdown, it’s likely
that a short-term funding bill will be
needed to keep the government open past the Dec. 11 deadline.
Republican aides characterized Tuesday night’s offer from House
Speaker Paul Ryan and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell as
an opening move, but the White House weighed in sharply, saying it
threatened a government shutdown.
Many lower-tier items in the massive measure have been worked
out, leaving numerous policy provisions, known as “riders” as the main
unresolved items.
“The effort they’re engaged in now is to lard the bill up with
ideological riders,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told
reporters.
House scales back ‘No Child Left Behind’
WASHINGTON (AP) — After years of failed efforts, the House
voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to sharply scale back the federal
role in American education. But the bill would retain the testing
requirement in the 2002 No Child Left Behind law that many parents,
teachers and school districts abhor.
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decision-making power over how to use students’ test performance in
assessing teachers and schools. The measure also would end federal
efforts to encourage academic standards such as Common Core.
The 1,000-plus page measure was a compromise reached by House
and Senate negotiators. The Senate is to vote on it early next week and
President Barack Obama is expected to sign it.
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who led the House-Senate conference
committee on the legislation, said Washington has been micromanaging
the nation’s classrooms for too long.
“Today, we turn the page on the failed status quo and turn over
to our nation’s parents and our state and local leaders the authority,
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education,” he said.
Lack of sound in Chicago police videos raises
more questions
CHICAGO (AP) — A police dash-cam video that captures a
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no sound, nor do videos from four other squad cars at the scene.
But department protocol indicates all the cruisers should have been
recording audio that night.
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were careless with the recording equipment or, worse, attempting a
cover-up.
“When you’ve got a standup cop with nothing to hide, the dash-cam
is his friend,” said Gregg Stutchman, who has specialized in video
forensics in California for 23 years. “But for cops who aren’t quite as
standup, it would make sense that they wouldn’t want things recorded.”
Several experts on the type of equipment commonly installed in
police vehicles told The Associated Press that it’s plausible for a single
squad car to have a glitch preventing sound recording. But they could
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same time and place by mere happenstance.
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The more likely explanation is that audio was intentionally switched
off, he said.