The Other McCain

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Juneteenth: No Holiday for Murder

Posted on | June 21, 2021 | Comments Off on Juneteenth: No Holiday for Murder

The newly-official holiday of “Juneteenth” was celebrated in many communities with gunfire and mayhem:

  • OAKLAND, California — Oakland police say roughly 5,000 people were hanging out on Lakeshore Avenue when gunfire erupted Saturday evening. The mass shooting at Lake Merritt injured six people and killed a 22-year-old San Francisco man. Police arrested two men and recovered two guns. No motive has been determined and it is unclear if they were shooting at each other or shooting at another group. Many people at the crime scene said that, even though there wasn’t an official event in the 2200 block of Lakeshore Avenue, thousands of people went there to party and celebrate Juneteenth before the shooting occurred.
  • GRANGER, Indiana — One man was killed and four others injured in a shooting early Sunday morning at Heritage Square in Granger. The victim was identified by police as Victor Anthwan Kyle, Jr., 26. The other four people shot in the incident, at about 4 a.m., had non-life threatening injuries. A release by the St. Joseph County Metro Homicide Unit said a “very large crowd” had attended a party held in a bar at the shopping center. A release by the unit said “multiple weapons were discharged.” WSBT reported that the incident occurred in the parking lot of the Heavenly Goat Brewing Co. An event, the Juneteenth Summer Bash, was scheduled to run at Heritage Square from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.
  • AURORA, Colorado — A man was killed and four other people wounded in a mass shooting in Aurora early Sunday morning, according to Aurora police. The shooting happened just after 4 a.m. in the parking lot of a strip mall at 12455 East Mississippi Ave. at a gathering that was “related to a Juneteenth celebration,” police said in a statement. Investigators believe multiple people opened fire — they had recovered 114 shell casings by midday Sunday. Police said the attack could be gang-related. No arrests have been made.
  • FLINT, Michigan — A 19-year old woman was fatally shot by a police officer near a Juneteenth parade in Michigan Saturday. Police say the woman drove up and opened fired on an officer working traffic at the celebration, and the officer returned fire, hitting the woman. She was taken to the hospital where she later died. Her identity has not been released at this time.
  • CLOVER, South Carolina — York County Sherriff’s Office said it’s investigating multiple shootings from a Juneteenth celebration that left multiple people injured. The shooting at a Juneteenth celebration occurred just before 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Oakridge Road and Bellaire Circle, according to the Sherriff’s Office. The office said deputies responded to a call about multiple gunshot shots fired during a Juneteenth celebration. Deputies say they also responded to a road rage call with shots fired shortly before the shooting at the celebration near Regal Road and Oakridge Road. The Sherriff’s Office said the suspect pulled beside the victim and fired shots into the side of the car near Regal Road and Oakridge Road.
  • BATON ROUGE, Louisiana — The Baton Rouge Police Department is investigating after an early morning shooting left two people dead and at least four others hurt Saturday. According to Sgt. L’Jean McKneely Jr., the shooting happened in a parking lot located in the 7100 block of Florida Boulevard around 2:00 a.m June 19. Police say there was an argument between unidentified individuals as a group of partygoers began to leave a concert at a venue nearby. During the argument, multiple people began shooting, authorities say. A total of six victims were shot. Police say Kyren Walton, 25, and Ladarius Alexander, 20, died due to injuries sustained from gunfire.

That list may not be all-inclusive, but it gives you an idea of what seems to be going on every weekend in America now — large gatherings that end in gunfire over trivial disputes and, at risk of “perpetuating stereotypes,” I’ll wager that none of these shooters are Trump voters, IYKWIMAITYD.

Meanwhile, in Texas, arrests have been made in an earlier mass shooting:

 

A deadly weekend mass shooting in Austin’s famed entertainment district arose from a feud between two groups of Central Texas teenagers, according to a police affidavit filed Wednesday.
Harker Heights High School student Jeremiah Tabb, 17, was arrested at school Monday and remained in Travis County Jail on Wednesday. He is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.
Bond is set at $500,000, but a police spokesman said it was unclear if he had an attorney to speak on his behalf.
In the arrest affidavit filed by Austin police filed in a Travis County district court Wednesday, a wounded male juvenile is quoted as telling detectives at an Austin hospital that he was with friends on East Sixth Street, a famous entertainment strip, when they began exchanging stares with a youth he identified as JT and JT’s friends.
The male juvenile, who was not identified by name, said he had attended the same Killeen middle school as JT, who said to the juvenile’s group, “What y’all wanna do? Y’all wanna fight?” The juvenile said he answered, “It’s whatever,” at which point JT pulled a handgun from his waistband and opened fire. A companion of the juvenile, also a juvenile, drew his own gun and returned fire. One person was killed and more than a dozen others were wounded.
Police showed a yearbook photo of Tabb to the hospitalized juvenile, who identified him as the one who shot him. He told police that Tabb had already shot him in the leg in Killeen a few days earlier. Police in Killeen, 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Austin, have a complaint on file from that shooting, according to the affidavit.

Why are groups of minors walking around downtown Austin after midnight? And why are these minors carrying pistols? Also, why are police looking the other way until such situations lead to murder?




 

Category: Crime

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