Obama to visit massacre victims' families
NEWTOWN, Conn., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The White House said President Obama would go to Connecticut Sunday for a vigil and to meet with families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims.
"Tomorrow evening, the president will travel to Newtown, Conn., to meet with the families of those who were lost and thank first-responders," the office of press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. "The president will also speak at an interfaith vigil for families of the victims as well as families from Sandy Hook Elementary School scheduled for 7 p.m. EST."
A law enforcement source told CNN the shooter, Adam Lanza, 20, had gotten into a disagreement Thursday with four adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Three of those adults were among the six adults and 20 children Lanza killed Friday after killing his mother, CNN said.
The state's chief medical examiner said Saturday all of the children were shot multiple times, all apparently with a rifle, The New York Times reported.
"This is a very devastating set of injuries," Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, the chief medical examiner, was quoted as saying. If they suffered, he said, it was "not for very long."
Parents were shown photos of their children for identification purposes, he said.
4 dead, officer wounded in Alabama
COLDWATER, Ala., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A chase and shootout between police and a man suspected of killing three people left the gunman dead and an officer wounded in Alabama Saturday, police said.
Oxford police Chief Bill Partridge said the incident began about 10 a.m. with a woman and two children shot to death in a trailer park south of Heflin in Cleburne County, The Anniston Star reported.
Neighbors who heard gunshots called authorities and officers chased the suspect, identified by police as Romero Roberto Moya, 33, of Heflin, to Oxford where he crashed a car and exchanged gunfire with the officers.
Partridge said Moya, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, critically wounded a Heflin police officer.
Police said Moya then commandeered a car and fled after the occupants got out, the Star said.
Police caught up to the car as it sped toward Coldwater, where Moya crashed into another car. Partridge said two Oxford police officers shot and killed the suspect as he got out of stolen car and reached for the assault rifle.
The woman driving the car Moya slammed into suffered minor injuries, Partridge said.
The names of the wounded officer, the three victims shot to death and the woman hurt in the crash had not been released, the newspaper said.
Calif. mall locked down after shots fired
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A busy Newport Beach, Calif., shopping mall was locked down and one man was in custody after shots were fired Saturday, police said.
Authorities said their initial search of the Fashion Island mall turned up no one who had been injured, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The newspaper said many shoppers posted messages on Facebook and Twitter describing their circumstances.
Shopper Dena Nassef told the Times she and another person were walking toward Macy's about 4:30 p.m. when people started panicking.
"With what happened in Connecticut, we were freaking out," she said. "It was like crazy people leaving stores."
Nassef said some people laughed, apparently not believing the situation was serious.
KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported the suspect in custody had been in a parking garage.
Okla. teen accused in school shooting plot
BARTLESVILLE, Okla., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- An Oklahoma teen was jailed under $1 million bail for allegedly trying to recruit schoolmates in a plot to shoot up and bomb their high school, authorities say.
Police allege in a court affidavit that Sammie Eaglebar Chavez, 18, tried to enlist other students in a massacre scheme Wednesday in the Bartlesville High School cafeteria. He was arrested Friday and charged with planning, attempting or conspiring to perform an act of violence, the Tulsa World reported.
Washington County District Judge Curtis DeLapp set his bail at $1 million.
"Sammie tried to recruit other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the school auditorium where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the doors shut," Bartlesville Police Lt. Kevin Ickleberry wrote in the affidavit.
"He also told them that if the students assisting him did not do what they were supposed to do, he would not hesitate to kill them and/or himself."
Police learned of the plot Thursday afternoon when notified by school administrators who had been alerted by a student, the affidavit stated. Chavez wasn't in school Thursday.
Chavez allegedly told students he would place bombs by the auditorium doors and detonate them when police showed up.
Police allege Chavez told a teacher last week he had bought a Colt .45-caliber gun and had practiced firing it.
He also allegedly tried to obtain a map or diagram of the high school facilities, used a school computer to search for information about a rifle and researched how to make pipe bombs and about the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
