A6 Th e Bul l eTin • Sun day, Ju n e 13, 2021
MASS SHOOTINGS IN THE UNITED STATES
Rash of incidents stirs fears heading into summer
BY KATHLEEN FOODY
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Two people
were killed and at least 30 oth-
ers wounded in mass shootings
overnight in three states, au-
thorities said Saturday, stoking
concerns that a spike in U.S.
gun violence could continue
into summer as coronavirus
restrictions ease and more peo-
ple are free to socialize.
One person was arrested as
of Saturday afternoon in any of
the attacks, which took place
late Friday or early Saturday
in the Texas capital of Austin,
Chicago and Savannah, Geor-
gia.
Police have arrested one sus-
pect and are searching for an-
other after a mass shooting on
a crowded downtown Austin
street left 14 people wounded
early Saturday, two of them
critically.
The Austin Police Depart-
ment said in a news release that
the U.S. Marshals Lone Star
Fugitive Task Force assisted in
making the arrest, but it pro-
vided no other details other
than to say it is continuing to
follow up on leads for the sus-
pect still at large.
In Chicago, a woman was
killed and nine other people
were wounded when two men
opened fire on a group stand-
ing on a sidewalk in the Cha-
tham neighborhood on the
Aaron Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Blood stains remain on Sixth Street after an early-morning shooting on Saturday in downtown Austin, Texas.
city’s South Side. The shooters
also got away and hadn’t been
identified by mid-afternoon
Saturday.
In the south Georgia city of
Savannah, police said one man
was killed and seven other peo-
ple were wounded in a mass
shooting Friday evening, po-
lice said.
Two of the wounded are
children — an 18-month-old
and a 13-year-old.
Savannah’s police chief, Roy
Minter, Jr., said the shooting
may be linked to an ongoing
dispute between two groups,
citing reports of gunshots be-
ing fired at the same apart-
ment complex earlier in the
week.
“It’s very disturbing what
we’re seeing across the country
and the level of gun violence
that we’re seeing across the
country,” he told reporters Sat-
urday. “It’s disturbing and it’s
senseless.”
The attacks come amid an
easing of COVID-19 pandemic
restrictions in much of the
country, including Chicago,
which lifted many of its re-
maining safeguards on Friday.
Many hoped that a spike in
U.S. shootings and homicides
last year was an aberration per-
haps caused by pandemic-re-
lated stress amid a rise in gun
ownership and debate over
policing. But those rates are
still higher than they were in
pre-pandemic times, including
in cities that refused to slash
police spending following the
death of George Floyd and
those that made modest cuts.
“There was a hope this
might simply be a statistical
blip that would start to come
down,” said Chuck Wexler, ex-
ecutive director of the Police
Executive Research Forum.
“That hasn’t happened. And
that’s what really makes chiefs
worry that we may be enter-
ing a new period where we will
see a reversal of 20 years of de-
clines in these crimes.”
Tracking ups and downs in
crime is always complicated,
but violent crime commonly
increases in the summer
months. Weekend evenings
and early-morning hours also
are common windows for
shootings.
Many types of crime did de-
cline in 2020 and have stayed
lower this year, suggesting the
pandemic and the activism and
unrest spurred by the reaction
to Floyd’s death didn’t lead to
an overall spike in crime.
The 17 mass shootings in
2020 was the lowest annual to-
tal in a decade, according to
a database compiled by The
Associated Press, USA Today
and Northeastern University.
The database tracks all mass
killings including shootings,
defined as four or more people
dead not including the perpe-
trator.
According to that defini-
tion, there have been 17 mass
killings, 16 of those shootings,
already this year, said James
Alan Fox, a criminologist and
professor at Northeastern Uni-
versity.
The Gun Violence Archive,
which monitors media and
police reports to track gun vi-
olence, defines mass shoot-
ings as those involving four or
more people who were shot,
regardless of whether they
died. Overall, according to
its database, more than 8,700
people have died of gun vio-
lence in the U.S. this year.
The GVA also found that
mass shootings spiked in
2020 to about 600, which was
higher than in any of the pre-
vious six years it tracked the
statistic. According to this
year’s count, there have been at
least 267 mass shootings in the
U.S. so far, including the lat-
est three overnight Friday into
Saturday.
“It’s worrisome,” Fox said.
“We have a blend of people be-
ginning to get out and about
in public. We have lots of di-
visiveness. And we have more
guns and warm weather. It’s a
potentially deadly mix.”
CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST
Biggest heat wave of the year heightens drought and fire fears
BY HAYLEY SMITH
AND LILA SEIDMAN
Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — With a
worsening drought gripping
the West and wildfire season
looming, California is bracing
for the most severe heat wave
of the year — one that prom-
ises to tax the state’s power sup-
plies while also offering a grim
preview of challenging months
to come.
The heat wave will bring tri-
ple-digit temperatures to the
valleys and inland regions of
Southern California as well as
many parts of the rest of the
state, heightening fire risks.
It comes as parts of North-
ern and Central California are
turning to water restrictions as
the drought rapidly alters the
landscape.
In Lake Oroville over Me-
morial Day weekend, dozens
of houseboats sat on cinder
blocks because there wasn’t
enough water to hold them. At
Lake Mead, the largest reser-
voir in the United States, the
water level dropped to about
1,072 feet Wednesday night
— a low not seen since it was
filled in the 1930s.
The Colorado River, where
the reservoir is located, sup-
plies water for 40 million peo-
ple in Arizona, California, Col-
orado, Nevada, New Mexico,
Utah and Wyoming. Officials
“Early heat waves and more frequent heat waves this
summer will exacerbate an already serious situation. It
crosses many boundaries and really impacts everybody.”
— Bill Patzert, a climatologist who noted that it is “way too early”
in the year for such an event
said its water level could fall
even farther.
The incoming heat wave can
exacerbate that lack of mois-
ture, experts said.
“With high temperatures,
we’re going to get more evap-
oration and less water to use
later on. We’re obviously not
going to get much rain any-
time soon,” said Mike Wofford,
a meteorologist with the Na-
tional Weather Service in Ox-
nard. “I’m not sure how much
worse it makes it. It’s already
pretty bad.”
The extreme temperatures
are atypical in Los Angeles
in June, which is usually still
mired in a marine layer with
clouds and fog, Woffard said.
The heat will be tempo-
rary, but the combination of
intensely high temperatures
and a prolonged dryness will
worsen California’s critical cli-
mate condition.
“Early heat waves and more
frequent heat waves this sum-
mer will exacerbate an already
serious situation,” said clima-
tologist Bill Patzert, noting that
it is “way too early” in the year
for such an event.
“It crosses many boundaries
and really impacts everybody,”
he said.
The West has always been
dry, but recent years have been
some of the worst.
According to the Los An-
geles Almanac, six of the last
10 years have had below-aver-
age rainfall. The parched span
from 2011 to 2016 was the dri-
est continuous five years ever
recorded in downtown Los
Angeles
Since Oct. 1, downtown L.A.
has received a scant 5.8 inches
of precipitation — about 41%
of normal — putting it on
track to be the eighth-driest
in the 144 years since records
have been kept.
The effects of the latest
drought are already playing out
across the region.
In the Bay Area this week,
Santa Clara County officials
declared a water shortage
emergency, which could lead
to mandatory water restric-
tions for the county’s 2 mil-
lion residents. Marin County
in May declared a drought
Can you
believe this
maniac?
Skin cancer is the most
common cancer in the
United States.
21st-century medicine. Good old-fashioned care.
The region’s expert in Mohs surgery • Dr. Peters specializes in high-risk skin cancer
treatment, early detection, and prevention
Gerald Peters, MD, FAAD, FACMS
Ann Reitan, MHS, PA-C • Ericka Luckel , PA-C • Julie Natoli , PA-C
541-323-SKIN (7546) • www.petersderm.com • 2353 NE Conners Ave • Bend
emergency, not long after Gov.
Gavin Newsom expanded his
April 21 drought emergency
across a vast swath of the state.
More than 40 of California’s
58 counties are now under a
drought state of emergency.
And though dwindling wa-
ter supplies can affect people at
a local level, the results can res-
onate nationwide, particularly
because California produces
much of the country’s agricul-
ture.
Already, many farmers in
the Central Valley have de-
clared the outlook for the
year to be grim because of the
drought, with some openly
questioning their future in the
state.
Jeffrey Kightlinger, general
manager for the Metropoli-
tan Water District of Southern
California, said the region’s
water supply comes primarily
from the Colorado River and
the Northern California Sierra
Nevada range. Climate change
is reducing the snowpack that
feeds both.
“We know we’re going to
get more droughts, and they’re
going to be deeper and hotter,
with less supply,” Kightlinger
said. “We’re pretty well-pre-
pared for the world of 2020,
2021, but that doesn’t mean
we’re prepared for the world of
2030.”
The imminent heat wave
also will strain the energy grid
as millions of residents crank
up their air conditioners.
During a similar heat wave
in August, the California Inde-
pendent System Operator — the
body that runs the electric grid
for most of the state — declared
a statewide Stage 3 emergency
for the first time since 2001.
“A picture is a poem
without words.”
- Horace
LINDA SWINDLE
103 NW Oregon Ave. • Downtown Bend
541-306-3176 • redchairgallerybend.com