Strange, none of the US news sites are carrying this story.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3695699.stm




US school shooting wounds several


US authorities have been trying to keep weapons out of schools
At least four people have been injured in a shooting at a high school near Baltimore, in the US state of Maryland.
Several of the victims have been taken to hospital, at least one with life-threatening injuries, police say.

Witnesses told police a dark-coloured car pulled up outside Randallstown High School. The driver got out and opened fire before driving off.

A car matching the description had been found nearby and a man had been taken into custody, police say.


A charity basketball game designed to raise scholarship money and attended by state legislators was being held inside the school when the shooting occurred.

Saw it on the local news. People getting shot in Baltimore is'nt really national news.

Oh so John Mohammed and Malvo don't ring a bell anymore?  

They had a blurb about it when I saw part of the news today.  Seems someone drove by and fired a semi-auto handgun out the window.  Probably a hi-cap magazine, just in time for the AWB to end.

Besides those two

I heard there was some sort of policy to reduce the amount of news coverage of school shootings.  Supposedly all the news coverage they were getting a few years back caused a lot of "copycat" shootings.

Digital

Did you notice what was behind the alt tag on the gun pic?

"The shotguns used by the Columbine High School in 1999"

Fox covered this today. A shooting in Baltimore really is SNAFU.

Quoted: Strange, none of the US news sites are carrying this story.....

Sure they are.

Arrests, Motives In School Shootings

Saturday, May 08, 2004
WBAL Radio


One person is charged and another is named in an arrest warrant after four Randallstown High School students were shot and wounded on the school grounds Friday.  

Baltimore County Police tell WBAL News that 20-year-old Ronald Johnson of Enchanted Hills Road in Owings Mills has been charged with four counts of first-degree attempted murder in the shootings that occured minutes after a charity basketball game at the school on Offutt Road at Winands Road,  about a mile from heavily-traveled Liberty Road.  

Police have issued an arrest warrant for a 17-year-old Randallstown student, Matthew McCullough, of the 3900 block of Whispering Meadow Road in Randallstown.  He is charged as an adult with four counts of first-degree attempted murder.    

Investigators believe that McCullough and one or more other students got into an argument or fight earlier in the week over a girl at Randallstown.  Police think McCullough on Friday returned to the school with friends to settle the score.

Police tell us that the four boys who were shot were not part of the original dispute. Witnesses said that the gunfire appeared to be almost random,  without apparent specific aim.

William Thomas,  a football player for Randallstown, was listed in critical condition at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center Saturday night.  Another Randallstown senior student, Andre Mellerson,  was listed in fair condition Saturday evening, according to Shock Trauma.  Basketball player Alexander Brown was treated and released from the same trauma center.  Football quarterback Marcus McLain was treated and released from northwest Baltimore's Sinai Hospital.  

Investigators say that four persons were in a black sedan that sped away from Randallstown High after the shooting. A black BMW 7-Series sedan was found a few miles away in Pikesville.   One of the suspects was picked up in a clothing store in the 100 block of Reisterstown Road. A worker there said that a shirtless man ran inside,  picked out a T-shirt and had come to the counter to pay for it when police were waiting for him outside and arrested him without incident.      

At a briefing Saturday afternoon,  Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith said that there will be a "subdued" police presence Monday at Randallstown High School,  when classes resume.  Counselors for distraught students will also be available.  

County school was fighting a reputation for violence


Ronald Patrick Johnson Jr.

Data indicate police were frequently called to Randallstown High


When asked last month about the biggest challenges facing Randallstown High School, William Thomas cited a curriculum that he doesn't find sufficiently challenging and students who don't seem to care about their grades.

He said nothing about school violence.

Yesterday, Thomas was one of four Randallstown students shot outside the school after a charity basketball game. He was in critical condition last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to a spokeswoman.

The Sun interviewed Thomas and several other students in his African-American history class last month about the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education to desegregate American schools. A half-century later, Randallstown High is more than 95 percent black.

"It's not that Randallstown is a bad school," said Thomas, who moved two years ago from a majority-white high school in the Atlanta area. "It's just that the kids don't apply themselves as they should and as kids at predominantly white schools apply themselves."

Thomas, a senior with plans to study electrical engineering in college, added, "The students make it a bad school because they don't want to strive to do better."

Randallstown is a stronghold of Baltimore County's black middle class. Many families have moved there from Baltimore to get a better education for their children. Yet the school is troubled by high teacher turnover and low student performance.

It is also a school trying to overcome a reputation for violence. In the first half of the previous school year, the most recent period for which data are available, Randallstown High had called police to the building 30 times - more than any other Baltimore County high school. Many students interviewed said the school had calmed down significantly this year.

A new principal, Thomas Evans, has been trying to turn the school culture around. He has been working extensively on teacher training. He has plans to implement a new schedule with longer class periods and a system of "academies."

Evans, too, has said it is academic rigor - not violence - that is the school's greatest challenge. He said the school has had only a handful of significant fights this year.

"I would like to reassure parents that this is not typical of Randallstown High School or even typical of the Randallstown community," Evans said last night. "This was a freak incident. The kids are safe at our school. ... It's the world that's not safe."


Bystanders outside school

WHy am I not suprised by this?

Maryland clearly needs to tighten up its lax gun laws.

By Sara Neufeld
Sun Staff
Originally published May 8, 2004

When asked last month about the biggest challenges facing Randallstown High School, William Thomas cited a curriculum that he doesn't find sufficiently challenging and students who don't seem to care about their grades.

He said nothing about school violence.

Yesterday, Thomas was one of four Randallstown students shot outside the school after a charity basketball game. He was in critical condition last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center, according to a spokeswoman.

The Sun interviewed Thomas and several other students in his African-American history class last month about the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education to desegregate American schools. A half-century later, Randallstown High is more than 95 percent black.

"It's not that Randallstown is a bad school," said Thomas, who moved two years ago from a majority-white high school in the Atlanta area. "It's just that the kids don't apply themselves as they should and as kids at predominantly white schools apply themselves."

Thomas, a senior with plans to study electrical engineering in college, added, "The students make it a bad school because they don't want to strive to do better."

Randallstown is a stronghold of Baltimore County's black middle class. Many families have moved there from Baltimore to get a better education for their children. Yet the school is troubled by high teacher turnover and low student performance.

It is also a school trying to overcome a reputation for violence. In the first half of the previous school year, the most recent period for which data are available, Randallstown High had called police to the building 30 times - more than any other Baltimore County high school. Many students interviewed said the school had calmed down significantly this year.

source: Baltimore Sun:

Witnesses said about 100 students were in the parking lot of the Baltimore County school after the game, a charity fund-raiser organized by Del. Robert A. Zirkin of Owings Mills.

A fistfight erupted about 4:30 p.m., and witnesses reported hearing two bursts of gunfire. School had been dismissed at 2:05 p.m.

Police and witnesses said the shooting apparently did not stem from anything related to the game. "The speculation is that it was a neighborhood argument," said county police spokesman Bill Toohey.

Than there is this:

Latea Bell, the student witness, gave a slightly different account. She said Randallstown football players were arguing with guys who do not attend the school when someone punched a football player.

"One guy punched another guy, and all the friends just joined in," said Bell, who estimated that 20 people were fighting. The brawl ended when shots were fired.

Bell said the dispute between football players and others began the day before when there was a fight in school.

Principal Evans said the dispute might have evolved from an altercation earlier in the week in the school cafeteria.

This doesn't fit the anti agenda, therefore there is light coverage of this incident.

Quoted: ' This doesn't fit the anti agenda, therefore there is light coverage of this incident.

True, they like middle class white kids doing the shootings.

Dupe topic.

It was big news untill it was found that it was a gang shooting and not a school violence shooting.

Quoted: Quoted: ' This doesn't fit the anti agenda, therefore there is light coverage of this incident. True, they like middle class white kids doing the shootings.

....who are doped to the gills with paxil/zoloft/prozac & who conveniently kill themselves afterwards (with the gun they bought at a gunshow from the son of a guncontrol org activist).  Manchurian Candidate???  hmmmm, could be......

Quoted: Quoted: ' This doesn't fit the anti agenda, therefore there is light coverage of this incident. True, they like middle class white kids doing the shootings.

Yup. If the shooter was white, it'd be on all the major networks...