In a single week in America, 4 communities confronted the aftermath ...

CNN —

Over the span of a week, four different communities across the United States have grappled with the aftermath of a school shooting.

Families in Florida are reeling after a jury recommended life in prison for the gunman who killed 17 people in a Parkland high school in 2018. The shooter is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday. In a Connecticut court, far-right talk show host Alex Jones has asked for a new trial after jurors said he should pay nearly $1 billion in compensatory damages to eight families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims and one first responder over his lies about the 2012 massacre.

On Monday, a teen accused of killing four students and wounding seven others at a Michigan high school in November pleaded guilty to all charges against him. As that shooter entered his plea, another gunman walked inside a St. Louis high school with an AR-15-style rifle, killing a student and a teacher and injuring several others.

And on Thursday, the Texas Department of Public Safety top cop defended his agency’s role in the May 24 attack on a Uvalde elementary school that left 19 young students and 2 teachers dead.

High School students were evacuated to a parking lot from the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School after a shooting on October 24, 2022 in St. Louis, Missouri. David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Zuma Press

Shootings in US schools, while still rare when compared with other incidents of gun violence, have become far more regular than any other country in the world and show no sign of slowing. There have been at least 53 school shootings at K-12 schools so far this year, more than in all of 2021 and nearly double as many as in 2018. In many cases, legal proceedings seeking justice can last decades, offering a national reminder every few months of the victims and the violence.

“It tells us how many shootings, some of which we forgot about, we’ve lived through in the past few years,” said Janet Johnson, a Florida criminal defense attorney. “It’s hard to keep them straight.”

In between proceedings, new attacks reignite decades-old conversations for change and flare up political debates. But often, little changes.

“We have become way too comfortable with these events,” said Joel Dvoskin, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine. “People have just kind of gotten used to this, it’s normalized. Which is horrible.”

The frequency of gun violence at schools has traumatized scores of survivors and deeply impacted people across the country who are exposed to violence regularly through outlets like the media, experts say. And it’s created a distorted reality for young learners – one consisting of active shooter drills, metal detectors and clear backpacks – and robbed them of their sense of security in what are supposed to be sanctuaries.

Offering true justice to scarred communities will be about more than just securing convictions and monetary penalties, experts say. And finding a way out of consistent violence in school buildings will require that we begin asking new questions.

Families of Sandy Hook victims react to $1B Alex Jones verdict 10:48 - Source: CNN

We’re experiencing collective trauma

Students are already in a mental health crisis and exposure to gun violence – during and outside school hours – can have a deep impact on their health, their ability to develop normally and their motivation to learn, according to an August report from two members of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium. The impacts often disproportionately affect students of color, who are more likely to be exposed to gun violence, said Amanda Nickerson, a professor of school psychology at the University at Buffalo, and one of the report’s authors.

“We know that there have been surges in depression and anxiety among youth, and parents and school children report being concerned about a school shooting in their school,” Nickerson said.

A Pew Research Center survey released this month found about a third of parents with children in K-12 schools said they were “very or extremely worried” about a shooting happening at their school. A higher proportion of Hispanic and Black parents reported being worried.

But it’s not just those close to the violence: There are significant impacts on the larger American collective, too. The repeated gun violence in classrooms “shatter our sense of security and safety,” and leave many angry, fearful and in a constant state of worry, Nickerson said.

“Being on high alert and having a constant stress response can also affect us in many ways. It can interfere with concentration, work, interpersonal relationships, and other areas of functioning,” she said. “What appears to some as being ‘numb’ may reflect fatigue, disengagement if we think we can’t do anything about it or being overwhelmed by (the) complexity of the issues that feed into violence.”

“There does seem to be a kind of resigned acceptance among youth that this is the world we live in.”

It’s a scary thought for Dvoskin, who says he thinks about his 3-year-old granddaughter and what today’s America means for her.

“Her formative years are going to be in this climate,” Dvoskin said. “The idea that parents are afraid to let their kids go to school because, what if the next one’s here… and the fact that kids are, more than before, learning how to be in a constant state of wariness. It’s hard to learn when you’re fearful.”

What does justice look like?

Legal proceedings and holding those responsible to account have played a role in the healing journey for families and communities, but justice itself has been elusive.

“It’s really hard to talk about justice and closure when it’s an ongoing issue,” said Ron Avi Astor, a social welfare professor at UCLA. “When there’s a disaster that happens and it’s done and over with, then you could look back and we could come together as a country. But when it’s happening every week, over and over and over again, there is no justice or closure, because it’s not done. We’re in the midst of it, as a collective, as a country.”

Actions like being able to deliver a victim impact statement or watch a conviction be handed down can often feel cathartic for survivors or victims’ families, Johnson, the attorney said.

Holding all parties involved accountable is also critical, she added. In Michigan, the parents of the 16-year-old who killed four students at an Oxford high school, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter charges related to the shooting, after prosecutors accused them of giving their son easy access to a gun and ignoring signs he was a threat. (They have pleaded not guilty and will be tried in January.) Those charges are especially important, Johnson said, because they help deliver a message to other parents that they, too, can be held to account, if their child commits a violent act.

In Uvalde, after consistent public scrutiny over law enforcement’s failure to confront the gunman, the school board fired the district police chief over his handling of the attack. A Texas state trooper and another officer were also fired and several others are under investigation for what they did or didn’t do. Families and a prominent Texas newspaper are also calling for the resignation of the DPS director.

The proceedings and the investigations are just about as close to justice as any of these communities will be able to get. Many survivors and victims’ families have instead directed their fight for justice toward creating change. After the jury’s recommendation of life in prison for the Parkland shooter, Tony Montalto, the father of 14-year-old victim Gina, said their mission remained to “effect positive change at a federal, state and local level.”

“Passing new laws, if the result is that there are new laws where parents are held more accountable, or people who sell guns are more accountable, or, as in Uvalde, law enforcement that don’t respond are held accountable, that’s something that at least family members can say, my child died, but maybe other children won’t die in the future,” he said.

'Ruling is another gut punch': Father of Parkland victim speaks after Cruz jury recommendation 01:44 - Source: CNN

Finding a ‘North Star’

Astor, the UCLA professor, says he’s optimistic change can come, but it will likely require reframing many of the questions Americans are asking.

Astor said he believes it’s worth revisiting the way school shootings – and details about the shooters – are reported on and shared on social media, to avoid creating notoriety for the attackers. It’s also important to avoid polarized discussions rekindled after each incident of school violence and instead, to engage in local, ground-up discussions that are less likely to turn political and attempt to find common ground, Astor said.

“We are at an impasse. We just frame things at such extreme positions, we can’t have a dialogue,” Astor said. “This is about … working together with an ideal of who we want to be as a society. Without that North Star, without that directional view of what we could be, it’s hard to unite people.”

Another important lesson could come from seeing how other countries have responded to violence, said Pedro Noguera, the dean of the University of Southern California’s School of Education.

After a gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, a historic tourist site in Tasmania in April 1996, Australia implemented gun law reforms under the leadership of a conservative prime minister, which included bans on rapid-fire rifles and shotguns countrywide, tightening gun ownership licensing and implementing a national buyback program – leading to a rapid decline in firearm homicides and suicides. In New Zealand, the parliament voted nearly unanimously to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons less than a month after 51 people were killed in a 2019 mass shooting.

Addressing what he calls the country’s “broken” mental health system is another key component, Noguera said. “We’re expecting teachers, who are already burdened by the responsibility of addressing the academic needs of kids, to do something they’re not trained to do, which is to address the mental health needs of kids.”

But addressing that alone won’t be enough.

In the St. Louis shooting that left two dead, authorities reported when family members of the 19-year-old gunman grew concerned about his mental health, they did everything right. His parents contacted police, had a firearm removed from his possession, had previously committed him to a mental institution, were consistently in touch with medical providers and would occasionally search his room. But the shooter still wreaked terror on the school.

Astor, Nickerson and Noguera were all part of a group of academics who have released an eight-point gun violence prevention plan which tackles a wide range of approaches to the problem, including the need to have adequate staffing for mental health services, a national program to train crisis intervention teams, a requirement to help maintain safe and positive school environment conditions, red flag laws and comprehensive background checks as part of gun ownership licensing procedures.

“The only semblance of justice,” Noguera said, “Could be a concerted effort to prevent these incidents from occurring in the future. Then at least, parents would know we’ve learned from our mistakes.”

Highland Park gunman's family was in turmoil for years leading up to ...

CNN —

When Bob’s Pantry and Deli opened for business in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park in 2008, loyal customers lined up in the snow at 4 a.m. to support Bob Crimo, who was striking out on his own after years running a convenience store franchise. Photos from opening day showed customers hoisting massive sandwiches and Crimo posing with his beaming family – including his eight-year-old son Robert Crimo III, who went by Bobby.

The deli quickly became a popular local fixture: a hangout spot for teenagers, a friendly gathering place for the neighborhood, and a pit stop for an affordable, delicious lunch.

But behind the scenes, the Crimo family was in turmoil. Police reports show that officers were regularly called to their home over domestic disputes between Crimo and his wife, and in 2019, police briefly confiscated a collection of knives after then 18-year-old Bobby threatened to “kill everyone.”

More recently, after the once-bustling deli closed, the family appeared to fall into dire financial straits, with foreclosure cases proceeding against both of the homes they owned and Bob Crimo telling a judge several weeks ago he was on food stamps.

Then, as Highland Park prepared to celebrate the Fourth of July this week with the annual parade through the city’s picturesque downtown, Bobby allegedly climbed onto a cosmetics store rooftop with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire on the festivities, killing seven people and injuring dozens of others.

In the wake of the tragedy, the close-knit community of Highland Park is reeling and trying to understand a massacre with no apparent motive. Locals said that it was even more shocking that the shooter was Bobby Crimo – the son of a well-known local figure beloved by his regular customers, who even ran for mayor several years ago.

Bob Crimo at the Bob's Pantry and Deli opening in 2008. Obtained by CNN

The elder Crimo is facing scrutiny in part because he sponsored a permit allowing his son to purchase firearms before he turned 21, including the gun he used in the shooting. Locals who once lined up for “Nicky D” sandwiches at Bob’s say they can’t comprehend how the family could have missed warning signs, including violent imagery in the music videos Bobby posted online, or why Crimo would have signed the gun permit application.

“To be that irresponsible and signing off is mind-blowing to me,” said Barbara Medina, a longtime Highland Park resident who often shopped at the deli and was marching in the parade when the shooting took place. “It’s a shock that it’s anybody in your town, that they could come in and do that to their own community.”

Crimo did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment, but in an interview with the New York Post, he said he had no idea Bobby was preparing to commit the shooting and that he wasn’t responsible for his son’s actions.

“I’ve been here my whole life, and I’m gonna stay here, hold my head up high, because I didn’t do anything wrong,” he declared.

Police called to family home several times

More than a dozen Highland Park residents who knew the shooter or his family spoke to CNN about his upbringing, as they tried to piece together how their city had joined the long list of American communities whose names have become shorthand for mass shootings.

By all accounts, Bobby Crimo was a quiet kid, who could be seen running around his dad’s shop as he grew up. His father ran the White Hen Pantry, a franchise of a local convenience store chain that became known for its sandwiches.

In an affluent lakeside suburb where most shops closed early, the White Hen Pantry was open 24 hours, giving teenagers a safe hangout spot at night. Regulars remembered the elder Crimo as a gregarious, generous presence who would let customers waiting on a paycheck buy food on credit, and who seemed to be manning the counter at all hours of the day and night.

Locals described Crimo as “the mayor of Ravinia,” the local neighborhood where the store was located, who knew all his customers and their regular orders.

Loyal customers eagerly await the opening of Bob Crimo's deli in 2008. Obtained by CNN

Crimo could be eccentric: One time, a friend said, he competed with another local restaurant owner to see which business could go longer without replacing any lightbulbs – until both stores were almost completely dark.

Crimo’s shop closed after 7-Eleven bought out the White Hen Pantry chain. But Crimo reopened in a new location under his own name, and his loyal clientele followed.

Still, there were signs of trouble in the family. One longtime customer and friend of Crimo’s — who asked to remain anonymous to speak candidly about the family — remembered that he and his wife, Denise Pesina, would have heated arguments in the deli, even in front of customers.

“It was awkward for people,” the friend said. “I remember thinking, if that’s the public arguments, I can only imagine the private ones.”

Police reports released this week show that the couple’s fights continued behind closed doors. In the six years after the deli opened, officers were called to their home at least a dozen times to settle domestic disputes or respond to allegations that one or the other was intoxicated.

In one 2010 incident, Crimo alleged that Pesina “had hit him with a screwdriver on the left forearm” – before recanting once he got to the police station – and in another, he claimed she hit him on the head with a shoe.

“He threatens to call the police for any and every argument we get in,” Pesina wrote in one handwritten witness statement. “He says he wants the police to think I’m crazy.”

There is no record that any of those incidents led to criminal charges against either Crimo or Pesina.

The two separated at some point, according to friends, with Pesina staying in their Highland Park home and Crimo moving to his father’s home in neighboring Highwood. Bobby lived in both homes over the years.

Pesina had had another brush with the law as well: In 2002, when Bobby was nearly two years old, she was arrested for child endangerment after allegedly leaving him in a locked car at a Toys-R-Us parking lot for about 27 minutes on a 79-degree day with the windows rolled up, according to court documents. Pesina pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment, and completed a year of court supervision.

Pesina did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. Her lawyer at the time, Steven Lunardi, said that she admitted having made a mistake.

Jeremy Cahnmann, who taught Bobby and his brother in an elementary after-school sports program, said the boys stuck out in his memory because their parents almost never picked them up on time.

“I remember talking to faculty at the school about how uninvolved the parents were,” he said. Bobby was “always the kid there at the end who didn’t get picked up.”

Former classmates describe suspect as withdrawn and odd

At school, Bobby kept to himself, with former classmates of the future gunman describing him as an odd, soft-spoken kid who showed little interest in class, school activities or his peers. But he explored a different side of his personality with rap songs and music videos he posted online – some of which included troubling imagery.

Molly Handelman, who attended middle school and high school with Bobby, described him as a “very quiet” guy. “When he did talk, he was very soft. He didn’t seem aggressive ever, at all,” she said.

Handelman, who worked with Bobby on class projects a few times, said “something definitely seemed off” about him. “He made it very clear he didn’t care about school,” she said.

Another former classmate who asked not to be named due to privacy concerns said he and Bobby used to hang out, play video games and skateboard together in middle school. “He would make YouTube videos all the time back then,” the classmate said, “DIY videos on how to grip a skateboard or replace a wheel, stuff like that.”

But in high school, the former classmate said, Bobby grew more insular and distant. “He was always by himself,” he said. “No one seemed to try to be his friend.”

According to a school district spokesperson, Bobby stopped attending Highland Park High School in 2016, after his freshman year. It’s unclear whether he went to another school after dropping out.

A body is transported from the scene of a mass shooting during the July 4th holiday weekend in Highland Park, Ill. Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/AP

In recent years, Bobby revealed a louder side of himself online, posting music videos he apparently made – some of which featured ominous lyrics and animated scenes of gun violence. Bobby, who made music under the moniker “Awake the Rapper,” uploaded his music on several major streaming outlets and on a personal website.

In one video titled “Are you Awake,” Bobby sports multicolored hair and face tattoos and declares, “I need to just do it. It is my destiny.” The video shows a cartoon animation of a stick-figure man resembling Bobby in tactical gear, carrying out an attack with a rifle.

In another video, a similar stick-figure cartoon character resembling Bobby is depicted lying face down on the ground in a pool of his own blood, surrounded by police officers with their guns drawn. And in a third, Bobby is seen wearing a helmet and a tactical vest and dropping bullets onto the floor of a classroom.

Financial struggles took a toll

As Bobby was struggling in school, his father’s business was also having trouble staying afloat. Regular customers said that they noticed more of the shelves in the store going empty, and the hours it was open shrinking. In conversations with friends, Bob Crimo complained about a downturn in the business, increases in rent, and fees he said he had to pay the city.

In 2018, Crimo settled on a solution: running for mayor of Highland Park. People who knew him said they were puzzled about why he would embark on what seemed like a quixotic campaign against the popular incumbent, Nancy Rotering, who was Bobby’s former Cub Scout leader.

In a local news profile, Crimo talked about making the city more business-friendly, but he didn’t seem to actively campaign, and it’s unclear how seriously he took the race. State records show Crimo didn’t receive any campaign donations other than a $560 loan from himself, which he spent on yard signs. In the end, Rotering won 72% of the vote in the April 2019 election, soundly defeating Crimo.

In another blow, Crimo’s deli shuttered around the same time. Google Street View photos show that while the shop had a big “Bob Crimo for Mayor” poster hanging in the window in late 2018, by September 2019, the storefront was vacant and empty.

According to court documents, the store was under a mountain of debt: A lender sued the deli and Crimo in late 2018, alleging he owed more than $764,000. A judge ruled in the lender’s favor by default in March 2019 after Crimo failed to appear in court. It’s unclear whether the debt was ever paid.

Gun permit granted despite ominous threats

Around the same time, Bobby started showing more troubling behavior.

In April 2019, according to police reports released by Highland Park, officers performed a wellness check on the 18-year-old Bobby after receiving a report that he had “attempted to commit suicide by machete” a week prior. Mental health professionals handled the episode, officers wrote.

Then in September of that year, police received the report that Bobby had “stated that he was going to kill everyone.” Bobby admitted that he was depressed and had a history of drug use, according to the report. His father turned over a collection of 16 knives, a dagger and a “Samurai type blade” to police, and officers sent the Illinois State Police a “clear and present danger” report related to the threats Bobby made. But the state police declined to approve that determination, which could have blocked Bobby from buying guns, because there wasn’t enough evidence to do so, the agency said this week.

Just three months later, Crimo signed his son’s application for a Firearm Owners Identification card, a requirement to buy guns in Illinois. Under state law, young adults under 21 years of age need a parent or guardian to sponsor them in order to get the permit.

Crimo told the New York Post that he sponsored the application so his son could shoot at a gun range. This week, an attorney for Bob Crimo – who no longer represents him – told the Chicago Tribune that Crimo was not aware of the incident that resulted in the confiscation of the knives when he signed the card. Yet, according to the state police, Crimo was actually the one who reclaimed the knives from officers. In the Post interview, Crimo downplayed Bobby’s threats in that incident as a “childish outburst.”

Attorney George Gomez, who is representing both parents, told CNN that “the family denies that there was any issues of suicide at the time,” and stressed law enforcement found “no safety risk.”

Bobby went on to use the card to legally purchase multiple guns before he turned 21 last year, passing a total of four background checks, according to the state police. That included the semi-automatic rifle he used in the shooting.

Meanwhile, the family’s finances appeared to unravel in recent years. HSBC Bank filed for foreclosure on their Highland Park house, where Bobby had grown up, in December 2019, alleging Crimo, Jr. owed more than $460,000. The case was delayed amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the lender restarted efforts to take possession of the home last year.

In April 2022, a mortgage servicing company filed to foreclose on a second property Crimo owns in the neighboring town of Highwood. The company, NewRez LLC, alleged that he had failed to make payments since July 2020, and owed more than $197,000.

In the Highland Park case, a judge granted Crimo a full waiver of court fees in May after he appeared in person and provided proof that he was receiving food stamps, according to court documents.

Last Thursday – four days before the shooting – Crimo filed a last-ditch motion to block foreclosure of the house, arguing the lender hadn’t given him sufficient notice of being in default or of accelerating the due date for the balance of the mortgage.

Paul Crimo, Bob’s brother, who lives with him and worked at his delis, told CNN he didn’t think the financial stress affected Bobby.

“My brother always made sure his kids always had a roof over (their) head at all times,” he wrote in a text message, adding that Crimo “is a great father.”

Community looks to family for answers

Mourners embrace during a memorial for the victims of the July 4th parade shooting on July 5, 2022 in Highland Park, Ill. Taylor Glascock for CNN

Some of the Highland Park residents who were at the parade when Bobby opened fire said they blamed the father for allowing his son to buy guns.

The elder Crimo “should be held liable for it and responsible for it,” declared Fred Kroll, a three-decade Highland Park resident who attended the parade with his wife and daughter and said he saw multiple people shot dead. “Whether it’s civil lawsuits by the survivors or he goes to jail … he should be punished.”

State officials have poured cold water on the idea of Crimo facing criminal responsibility over the deaths. “There’s not a criminal liability that’s directly attached to vouching for someone else… and they end up doing something terrible like this,” said Eric Rinehart, the Lake County State’s Attorney.

Gomez said the family is “trying to cooperate with all local, state, and federal authorities at the moment.” When asked if he felt there was any criminal wrongdoing on part of his clients, particularly the father, Gomez said, “we take the position that my client, Crimo Jr., did nothing wrong in this case.”

Crimo reportedly has said he wants “a long sentence” for his son, who faces seven counts of first-degree murder and a sentence of life in prison, if convicted. Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011.

Still, even Crimo’s friends say they doubt he’ll be able to stay in his hometown, or ever open a business here again.

“His kid shot up his hometown, and he’s going to have to come to terms with that action and, honestly, the role he played in his son’s evolution as a person,” one friend said. “It was his son’s name on the news – and that’s his name, too.”

Casey Tolan Daniel A. Medina
Casey Tolan
Daniel A. Medina

Utah family of 8 found shot dead in Enoch City: 5 children among dead

Eight members of a family, including five children, are dead after authorities said they found them shot in an apparent murder-suicide inside a rural Utah home on Wednesday.

Police officers made the discovery while conducting a welfare check at the home in Enoch City according to local officials in the agricultural city northeast of Utah's border with Nevada and Arizona, about 245 miles south of Salt Lake City.

On Thursday, city officials identified the shooting suspect as 42-year-old Michael Haight.

Two other adults in the home were identified as Haight’s wife, Tausha Haight, 40, and Tausha’s mother, 78-year-old Gail Earl. The other five victims were identified as the shooting suspect's children: a 17-year-old girl, 12-year-old girl, 7-year-old girl, 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old boy.

"Evidence suggests that the suspect took his own life after killing seven others in the home," Enoch City Manager Rob Dotson told reporters during a Thursday morning press conference.

The state medical's office will conduct autopsies to determine the victims' official cause of death, Dotson said.

According to Dotson, the welfare check took place after "someone with whom (the mother) had an appointment" notified police she did not show up.

Dotson said the community was sent reeling by news the family had been found dead and that they were well-known in the community.

“Many of us have served with them in church, in the community and gone to school with these individuals,” Dotson said

The five children attended preschool, elementary, middle and high schools in the Iron County School District, officials said Thursday..

"The Haights were my neighbors, the youngest children played in my yard with my sons," Mayor Geoffrey Chesnut told reporters during the news conference as he tried to fight back tears. "Enoch is a home of lots of young professionals and families... This is a tremendous blow to many many families who have spent many, many nights with these individuals who are now gone."

Dodson said a divorce petition was filed on Dec. 21 by the suspected shooter's wife.

He said did he did not know who was living in the home at the time of the killings.

Investigators with the Enoch Police Department and Iron County are among some of the agencies working together to determine what took place inside the home.

"We don't know what happened," Dotson said. "They were are friends, they were our neighbors and we loved them."

“This community at this time is hurting. They’re feeling loss, they’re feeling pain and they have a lot of questions,” Dotson added.

White House response

The White House on Thursday released the following statement:

"The President and First Lady are mourning with the Enoch City, Utah community in the wake of a tragic shooting that has reportedly claimed the lives of five children and multiple adults in their family home.

Too many Americans have lost loved ones or had their lives forever changed due to gun violence, and gun violence remains the leading cause of death for children in America. Less than one month after we marked 10 years since the Sandy Hook tragedy, another mass shooting has claimed the lives of five more children in Enoch City."

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Enoch, off Interstate 15 in rural Utah, just north of the city of Cedar City and some 80 miles west of Bryce Canyon National Park, had major flooding in 2021 that caused damage at hundreds of homes.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox offered condolences in a tweet Wednesday night.

"Our hearts go out to all those affected by this senseless violence. Please keep the community of Enoch in your prayers," Cox wrote.

If you or someone you know needs support for mental health, domestic abuse, suicidal thoughts or substance abuse call, text or chat: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988 and 988lifeline.org Domestic abuse: 800-799-7233 and thehotline.org BlackLine: 800-604-5841 and callblackline.com Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860 and translifeline.org Veterans Crisis Line: Dial 800-273-8255 and press 1 to talk to someone or send a text message to 838255 to connect with a VA responder. You can also start a confidential online chat session at Veterans Crisis Chat. veteranscrisisline.net

Contributing: Joey Garrison

Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.

Thursday's updates on Uvalde, Texas school shooting victims, shooter

This story is no longer being updated with information about the school shooting in Uvalde. For new updates, visit Friday's live blog here.

After a gunman opened fire in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school on Tuesday, details began to emerge about the horror that unfolded.

The rampage — the deadliest school shooting in Texas history — left 19 students and two teachers dead after an 18-year-old man barricaded himself inside their classroom.

Law enforcement officers eventually forced entry into the classroom, and police killed the shooter.

"It's a small classroom, you can have anywhere from 25 to 30 students in there, plus there were two teachers in there ... a typical classroom setting, where you have mass groups of children inside that classroom all together, with nowhere to go," Lt. Chris Olivarez, spokesperson for the Texas Department for Public Safety, said in a televised interview.

We also know now that the gunman legally purchased two AR rifles in the last two weeks, according to a briefing by state and federal officials provided to Texas officials.

As the hours passed, more victims were identified, and the community learned more about the lives lost Tuesday.

Follow along for live updates from the Uvalde, Texas school shooting and its aftermath Thursday. This story will be updated throughout the day.

More:Live updates Friday: Texas officials investigating police response to Uvalde school shooting

Abbott cancels NRA appearance, will deliver video remarks

Gov. Greg Abbott canceled an in-person appearance at a National Rifle Association convention in Houston on Friday and instead will be in Uvalde to speak about state resources for people affected by a mass shooting in the South Texas city this week.

Abbott will appear at the convention via a video recording, his spokeswoman Renae Eze said. He had been scheduled to address a leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm.

Earlier this week, the NRA recommitted to holding its annual convention over the weekend after a gunman entered Robb Elementary School and killed 21 people, the deadliest school shooting in the United States in a decade.

Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will attend the convention as planned.

Rather than cover game, baseball teams tweet gun violence info

As two Major League Baseball teams faced off Thursday night, the official Twitter accounts for the teams shared facts about gun violence rather than posting updates about the game.

"In lieu of game coverage and in collaboration with the Tampa Bay Rays, we will be using our channels to offer facts about the impacts of gun violence," the New York Yankees tweeted. "The devastating events that have taken place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable."

The Tampa Bay Rays tweeted the same statement.

Along with citations, the teams tweeted that, "every day, more than 110 Americans are killed with guns, and more than 200 are shot and injured," as well as that "firearms were the leading cause of death for American child and teens in 2020."

Other MLB teams' Twitter accounts still covered their games Thursday.

The Rays made a $50,000 commitment to Everytown for Gun Safety, one of the largest gun violence prevention organizations in America.

"This cannot become normal," the Rays tweeted. "We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes."

David Hogg, a founder of the student-led March For Our Lives which supports gun control legislation, shared the Yankees' tweet Thursday night.

"I'm telling you," Hogg tweeted, "this time is going to be different."

Father says parents pleaded for police to confront gunman

Javier Cazares, the father of 9-year-old Jackie, who was among the 19 students killed in the Uvalde school shooting, told the American-Statesman that he rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting, arriving about noon Tuesday.

He said several parents were yelling for officers to go into the building to confront the gunman and when the officers did not, the parents threatened to enter themselves.

He said it appeared that no police were inside the building during the time he was waiting outside.

The account echoes several others that have emerged from parents and other bystanders outside the school.

Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said Thursday that the gunman was inside the school for about an hour before he was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent.

Escalon, speaking at a press conference, did not answer questions about why Uvalde police did not stop the shooter. Instead, he said they were evacuating students and staff from other classrooms.

He said investigators are still piecing together exactly what transpired.

Cazares said he has not spoken with investigators but that a federal agent stopped by his home when he was not there.

"You're angry. You're sad. You're all over the place," he said.

His niece, Annabelle Rodriguez, also was killed.

— Staff writer Ryan Autullo

DPS: Gunman was killed about an hour after entering school

Victor Escalon, South Texas Regional Director for the Department of Public Safety, said the gunman who fired “numerous rounds,” killing 19 children and 2 teachers was in the school for about an hour before being fatally shot.

During a press conference on Thursday, Escalon said the gunman arrived at the school at approximately 11:30 a.m. and shot at two nearby witnesses, but was not confronted by police before entering the school about 10 minutes later through a door in the west entrance that appeared to be unlocked.

Escalon said there was not an armed school resource officer at the school who exchanged gunfire with the gunman, contrary to initial reports from DPS officials.

Officers with the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde school district police arrived about four minutes later and were unable to initially make entry because of an exchange of gunfire. He said the majority of the gunfire was at the beginning of the shooting.

While the officers were there, he said they called for additional resources and helped evacuate children and teachers.

Approximately an hour later, Escalon said U.S. Border Patrol tactical teams arrived, made entry and killed the gunman. Escalon did not answer questions about why Uvalde police officers did not kill the gunman during the hour he was inside the school.

“We're all hurting inside. We're hurting inside for the community members in Uvalde, Texas,” Escalon said. “We've got local partners that have to ... live here and work here every day. The victims, the family members, we feel for them.”

Escalon stressed that it would take hours or days to recreate the scene and find out exactly what happened.

Uvalde Police Department chief releases statement on shooting

Daniel Rodriguez, chief of the Uvalde Police Department, said officers responded within minutes to the school shooting along with Uvalde CISD officers. UPD officers sustained gunshot wounds from the gunman, but not life-threatening injuries.

He said there is an ongoing investigation by the Texas Rangers.

“I understand questions are surfacing regarding the details of what occurred. I know answers will not come fast enough during this trying time, but rest assured that with the completion of the full investigation, I will be able to answer all the questions that we can,” Rodriguez said in a statement.

Joe Garcia, husband of Texas teacher killed in Uvalde shooting, dies of heart attack

Joe Garcia had just placed flowers Thursday morning at the memorial site of his high school sweetheart Irma Garcia — his wife of 24 years and mother of their four children. Then he had a fatal heart attack.

Irma Garcia was one of two fourth grade teachers and 19 children who died Tuesday in a hail of gunfire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

"What happened was my Uncle Joe went to go leave flowers for my Tia (Aunt) Irma, his wife, and whenever he got back, he sat down at the kitchen table with his entire family, and after 3 minutes, he just fell over. I'm told my mom was giving him chest compressions. It happened around 10 o'clock. I know my little brother was there," nephew John Martinez of San Marcos, Texas, told the Detroit Free Press.

Now the four Garcia children — ages 23, 19, 15 and 13 — are planning two funerals, Martinez said.

- Detroit Free Press reporter Phoebe Wall Howard

President Biden to travel to Texas to comfort families of Uvalde school shooting victims

President Joe Biden will travel to Uvalde on Sunday to meet with the families of the victims of a mass elementary school shooting.

The White House said in a statement that the president and first lady would visit Texas to "grieve with the community that lost twenty-one lives in the horrific elementary school shooting."

"As a nation, I think we must all must be there for them," Biden said at the White House earlier this week.

- USA Today writers Michael Collins and Rebecca Morin

Congressman calls for FBI investigation into law enforcement action

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is calling for a federal investigation into the law enforcement response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in light of inconsistent reports emerging from state officials about what transpired on Tuesday.

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wrap on Thursday, Castro said state officials are providing conflicting accounts of the shooting that are "at odds with those provided by witnesses."

"The people of Uvalde, of Texas, and of the nation deserve an accurate account of what transpired," he wrote, before calling on the federal agency "to use its maximum authority to thoroughly examine the timeline of events and the law enforcement response and to produce a full, timely, and transparent report on your findings."

Castro said officials have failed to account for every moment between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, when the shooting allegedly took place. He also highlighted conflicting reports from officials about whether a school security officer exchanged fire with the shooter before he entered the school.

"Onlookers allege that parents unsuccessfully urged law enforcement to enter the building during this time and confront the shooter," he wrote.

The letter was made public moments after a news conference in Uvalde where officials recanted details about the shooting they previously reported.

Funds established for victims of Uvalde school shooting

The League of United Latin American Citizens has set up a fundraiser to help support the community of Uvalde, Texas.

"Where 90 percent of the students of Robb Elementary School identify as Hispanics and more than four-fifths are economically disadvantaged, this community needs our collective prayers, help, and support," LULAC said in a release.

More:Here's how you can help those affected by the Texas school shooting in Uvalde

United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County has set up a “United with Uvalde” fund to support the victims families and survivors of the shooting.

"When a tragedy like this happens, it is imperative that we show those affected that they are not alone. They should not have to navigate these unimaginable circumstances by themselves," United Way of San Antonio said in a release.

- Digital producer Sarah Ann Dueñas

Two performers withdraw from performances at NRA convention

Two performers scheduled to perform at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston this week have withdrawn in response to the school shooting at Uvalde.

In a statement, Larry Gatlin said he could not perform in “in good conscience.” He said he agreed with most positions of the NRA, but believes background checks would be a “step in the right direction” toward preventing tragic events like the shooting in Uvalde.

“My prayers and thoughts go to all who are suffering, and I pray that the NRA will rethink some of its outdated and ill-thought-out positions regarding firearms in AMERICA,” Gatlin wrote on Facebook.

More:Don McLean cancels NRA performance after Texas shooting: 'It would be disrespectful'

Don McLean said in a statement that he thought it would be disrespectful to perform “In light of the recent events in Texas.”

“I'm sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans,” McLean said. “I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.”

Uvalde CISD postpones high school graduation after shooting

The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District announced in a tweet that the Uvalde High School Graduation ceremony would be postponed.

“Uvalde Community, out of the deepest respect for the families and our community affected by the tragedy we have experienced, the Uvalde High School Graduation Ceremony has been postponed,” the district said. “This is a difficult time for everyone. Please keep all families in your prayers.”

Texas officials investigating if police acted fast enough to stop shooter at Uvalde school

Texas officials are scrutinizing law enforcement's response to the first reports that a gunman had breached a Uvalde elementary school Tuesday to determine whether officers failed to act quickly enough before the attacker killed 19 children and two teachers.

Authorities are focusing on an early timeline of law enforcement's convergence on Robb Elementary School, as some community members pleaded for officers to storm the building, where the 18-year-old gunman had barricaded himself in a fourth grade classroom where most victims died.

Sources close to the investigation said the review of law enforcement actions is routine after a major incident, but it has intensified in this case because of differing accounts from neighbors and witnesses about what police did and when. Authorities also are awaiting final collection of evidence at the scene and analysis of ballistics.

- Staff writer Tony Plohetski

More:Texas officials investigating if police acted fast enough to stop shooter at Uvalde school

Meghan Markle visits Texas school shooting memorial site, leaves white roses

Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, made a visit Thursday to Uvalde to pay tribute to the victims.

An Archewell spokesperson confirmed Markle's visit to the memorial to USA TODAY. The spokesperson said it was important for her to make the trip and extend her condolences and support to the Texas community..

Markle was pictured at the memorial site Thursday looking at a somber line of headstones. In another photo, she left a bouquet of white roses at the base of one of the memorial headstones.

Austin restaurants donating portion of sales to Uvalde relief efforts

Two big hospitality and restaurant groups in Austin have announced they intend to contribute money to relief efforts in Uvalde following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Via 313 will donate 10% of all sales at its Texas locations on Thursday to a selection of verified GoFundMe campaigns that has been established to assist the families in Uvalde.

New Waterloo hospitality group, which operates almost a dozen hotels and restaurants in Austin and iSanta Fe, New Mexico, announced it would donate 15% of food and beverage sales at its Austin properties to a fundraiser created by the Los Verdes Austin FC supporters group.

- Staff writer Matthew Odam

More:Austin restaurants donating portion of sales Thursday to Uvalde shooting relief efforts

GoFundMe sets up hub for verified Uvalde shooting fundraisers to prevent scams

The crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has set up a central hub for people looking to donate to help people directly affected by the Uvalde school shooting, and GoFundMe executives say they are working to prevent scammers from taking advantage of the tragedy.

“Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by (Tuesday's) school shooting. At GoFundMe, we are working around the clock to ensure the families receive the support they need,” GoFundMe said in a written statement.

GoFundMe has a specific, promoted centralized hub for verified fundraisers related to the Robb Elementary school shooting that is being updated as new fundraisers are verified. It can be found at gofundme.com/texas-elementary.

- Staff writer Kara Carlson

More:GoFundMe sets up hub for verified Uvalde shooting fundraisers to prevent scams

San Antonio hospital provides updates on four patients; two in serious condition

University Health, a hospital in San Antonio, reported in a tweet that the conditions of the four patients in their care from the shooting in Uvalde remains the same. The hospital reported that there is a 66-year-old woman and 10-year-old girl in serious condition, as well as a 10-year-old girl and 9-year-old girl in good condition.

'It's time to die:’ Fourth-grader recounts surviving Uvalde school shooting

A fourth grader at Robb Elementary recounted his experience of surviving the school shooting in Uvalde to KEN5, a television station in San Antonio,

"He shot the next person’s door. We have a door in the middle. He opened it. He came in and he crouched a little bit and he said, he said, 'It's time to die,'" the boy recalled.

According to KEN5, the student and four others hid under a table with a tablecloth during the shooting and came out from the table when the shooting stopped.

“When the cops came, the cop said: 'Yell if you need help!' And one of the persons in my class said 'help.' The guy overheard and he came in and shot her," the boy said. "The cop barged into that classroom. The guy shot at the cop. And the cops started shooting.”

He said Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles — his teachers —saved their lives.

“They were nice teachers," he said. "They went in front of my classmates to help. To save them.”

ABC: Mother of Uvalde gunman says son was “not a monster”

The mother of the gunman who shot 19 children and two adults in an elementary school in Uvalde told ABC News that her son was “not a monster" but could "be aggressive."

"I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like 'what are you up to?" Adriana Reyes told ABC News. "He can be aggressive... If he really got mad."

The gunman — who has been identified as Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident — legally purchased two AR rifles in the past two weeks before killing 21 people.

"We all have a rage, that some people have it more than others," Reyes added.

According to ABC, Reyes did not know her son bought the weapons. She also expressed sympathy for children who were killed and their families

"Those kids, … I have no words," Reyes said. "I don't know what to say about those poor kids."

Illinois governor responds to Abbott’s comments on gun violence in Chicago

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker responded Wednesday afternoon on Twitter to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott comments during a news conference mentioning gun violence in Chicago.

At Uvalde High School, Abbott said there are ‘real’ gun laws in Chicago, but “there are more people who are shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas.”

“We need to realize that people who think, ‘Well, maybe if we just implement tougher gun laws it’s going to solve it.’ Chicago and L.A. and New York disprove that thesis,” Abbott said.

More:Gov. Greg Abbott says tougher gun laws 'not a real solution' to ending mass shootings

Pritzker said Abbott was lying about Chicago and “what actually perpetuates gun violence.” Pritzker said that the majority of guns used in Chicago shootings come from states “with lax gun laws.”

“Don’t feed into the false narrative about Chicago and Illinois – it’s an excuse that politicians like you hide behind to stop the federal legislation we need to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people,” Pritzker tweeted.

“Do better,” Pritzker added. “You have 19 kids and two teachers who deserve our best.”

Former Columbine High School principal expresses support for Uvalde shooting victims

As he has done after multiple previous school shootings, Frank DeAngelis, the former principal of Columbine High School, is expressing his support for the Uvalde community and victims.

DeAngelis told TV station KUSA in Denver that he left a message for the principal of Robb Elementary School, and he could go to Uvalde if needed, although he would also respect their space.

In 1999, two gunmen killed 12 students and one teacher at Columbine High School. According to the Washington Post, more than 311,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine.

DeAngelis previously helped form the Principal Recovery Network, a group of principals who hope to offer support to other school leaders after school shootings. The network is now ready to help support the principal of Robb Elementary School, he told CNN.

“They’re all of our kids. It doesn’t matter whether they live in Texas, Colorado. They’re all of our kids. These senseless deaths just need to stop," he said to KUSA. “You know, the thing that really feels important is I was asked early on is, 'what are you gonna do?' I said, 'What are we gonna do?' because they’re all of our kids and we need to step up as a society and say enough is enough and we got to stop this.”

CNN: Local hospital treating 3 children, gunman’s grandmother

Lillian Liao, the pediatric trauma medical director at University Hospital in San Antonio, said the hospital is treating three children and the gunman's grandmother, according to CNN. All four patients are in critical but stable condition and will continue to receive care over the next days to weeks, she said.

"Broadly speaking, ... we were treating destructive wounds, and what that means is that there were large areas of tissue missing from the body, and they required emergency surgery because there was significant blood loss," Liao told CNN.

Liao, with tears in her eyes, said the hardest part of responding to the shooting at the hospital was knowing that many of the victims were likely already dead.

"I think that's what has hit us the most, not of the patients that we did receive and we are honored to treat them, but the patients that we did not receive," she said. “I think that that is the most challenging aspect of our job right now.”

“Our job as the trauma center is to be focused on treating the patients that we did receive, and that's what we're going to do today,” she added.

NAACP President urges Gov. Abbott to skip NRA conference

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, urged Gov. Greg Abbott to skip the National Rifle Association conference scheduled to begin on Friday after the shooting in Uvalde.

In a statement, Johnson said that Abbott’s attendance at the event after a gunman shot and killed 19 children would send a message that “guns are more important than the lives you represent.” He implored Abbott to “not attend” and “make the right decision.”

“You say you ‘don’t know the answer’ to the endless, senseless school shootings. We have the answer: gun regulations,” Johnson said. “Where do you begin? By skipping this week’s National Rifle Association conference.”

More:The NRA annual meeting in Texas still scheduled despite Uvalde shooting

AP: Frustrated onlookers urged police to charge into elementary school in Uvalde

During the shooting, bystanders urged police officers to move more quickly and charge the elementary school in Uvalde where a gunman shot 19 children and two teachers, according to the Associated Press.

Juan Carranza, who saw the scene from outside his house, said nearby women pleaded with officers to “Go in there! Go in there!” but they did not immediately do so.

Javier Cazares, who arrived at Robb Elementary School while police were outside, reportedly suggested to other onlookers that they should charge into the school. The AP reported that the gunman shot and killed Cazares’ fourth grade daughter.

“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” Cazares said, according to the AP. “More could have been done.”

More:Bystanders report urging police to charge into Uvalde, Texas school

Uvalde Leader-News mourns shooting victims on front page

The front page of the Uvalde Leader-News, the local paper in the town where a gunman killed 21 people, is almost entirely black, except for a single date: May 24, 2022.

The paper ran a story about the shooting with the headline “City’s Soul Crushed” and photos of law enforcement officers escorting children outside the school.

Names of Texas school shooting victims continue to emerge

Families and friends are mourning the loss of the 21 victims of the Uvalde school shooting. According to American-Statesman reporters, the list of confirmed victims currently includes:

Nevaeh Bravo, 10

Eliahana Cruz Torres, 10

Jose Flores, 10

Amerie Jo Garza, 10

Uziyah Garcia, 10

Ellie Garcia, 10

Xavier Javier Lopez, 10

Maranda Mathis, 11

Jayce Luevanos, 10

Layla Salazar, 10

Jailah Silguero, 10

Alithia Ramirez, 10

Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10

Alexandria "Lexi" Aniyah Rubio, 10

Irma Garcia, teacher

Eva Mireles, teacher

More:'He was our baby': Families share stories of those who died in Uvalde school shooting

Austin-area school districts increase law enforcement presence after Uvalde shooting

With the last day of school and graduation ceremonies around the corner for many Central Texas school districts, officials increased law enforcement presence on some campuses in the wake of the deadly shooting Tuesday at a Uvalde elementary school.

Several districts such as Austin, Hays, Leander and Pflugerville increased the number of officers at some campuses and for graduation ceremonies. Some districts, including Leander, were holding graduation ceremonies Wednesday.

Officers who serve at Austin school district high schools will be redeployed to elementary and middle schools, district spokesperson Jason Stanford said. That is in addition to normal security measures, such as locking all doors and monitoring social media for threats.

- Staff writer Nusaiba Mizan

More:Austin-area school districts increase law enforcement presence after Uvalde shooting

What you need to know Thursday: Uvalde, Texas school shooting

FedEx shooting: Indianapolis community holds vigils for victims ...

Indianapolis is still reeling from the shock of a mass shooting at a FedEx facility that left eight people dead and several others wounded.

Saturday evening Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett joined with U.S. Congressman Andre Carson, D-Indianapolis, and other officials as well as co-workers, family and friends of those whose lives were lost at a candlelight vigil at Krannert Park on the Westside.

Not only did those gathered offer sympathy and prayers, some issued calls for stronger gun laws in the wake of the tragedy at the FedEx Plainfield Ground Operations Center.

"We can't continue living with the constant threat of gun violence everywhere we go," Carson said. "It's not normal. It will never be normal. ... Let's turn this tragedy into a catalyst of change and create safer communities for all Americans."

Just a few hours before the vigil began, Indianapolis City Council President Vop Osili celebrated his mother's 97th birthday. The occasion led him to reflect how everyone deserves to live a life in which they can leave the house and be assured that they will not be touched by gun violence, whether they're headed to school or work.

The events of the past week prove, he said, that it's time to have "an adult discussion without rancor" about gun violence and to take steps to ensure that no other mass shootings occur.

More:Indianapolis leaders, White House calls for gun control measures after FedEx Indy shooting

For DeAndra Dycus, Pamela Wooden, Brenda Hutson and other members of Purpose 4 My Pain, the scourge of gun violence is personal.

They’ve all lost children to gun violence. It’s a club whose membership they wouldn’t wish on anyone, so when they heard the news that eight more families were now experiencing the same pain, Dycus said they knew they needed to act.

“I wanted to show solidarity in our community, because we’re tired,” Dycus said. “Enough is enough. And I wanted families who have been impacted by gun violence to know their community is here to support them.”

Joined by gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, they held a vigil earlier Saturday at the Olivet Missionary Baptist Church, so those affected by Thursday night's shooting would know they weren’t alone.

“It hurts us all,” said Wooden, who lost a son and daughter to gun violence, “because a lot of us have been there.”

'I watched too many people die'

FedEx workers at both gatherings painted a picture of a tight-knit workplace, where many employees knew one another and cared deeply for each other. Many wore FedEx face masks and some wore bright orange t-shirts with brilliant blue lettering that had the address and phone number of the operations center with words "Now Hiring."

Many of the employees hired at the facility belonged to the Sikh community. When Malkiat Singh visited his mother who worked there on a day shift, he heard people speaking Punjabi and saw signs written in the language most Sikhs use.

Proximity forged friendships.

Naseha Tai worked side by side with Amarjeet Kaur Johal for more than a year. While both were born in India, they spoke different languages – Tai Hindi and Johal Punjabi – and were different religions, Muslim and Sikh respectively.

As they loaded and scanned packages, however, they bonded. Johal shared her recipes for Punjabi dishes and shared with Tai how she was working to save money to give to her son and daughter-in-law.

Thursday was Tai's day off but Johal worked. She was among the eight victims.

"I'm going to miss her," said Tai, who during the vigil moved to stand close to another co-worker who was quietly sobbing.

Donna Mealer was at the facility Thursday night, too. Still shaken, she and her "work son" Will Higgins, who had Thursday off, embraced before the vigil began.

For the past two nights, Mealer said, she has been unable to sleep, traumatized by the incident, which she tries to push out of her mind.

"I am devastated," she said. "I watched too many people die."

FedEx shooting victims:8 victims identified by Indianapolis police

Other FedEx workers said the vigils were just what they needed. At the afternoon tribute, Savana DeLao and Michelle Parks said they would ordinarily have been working at the facility when the shooting occurred.

Parks is certain she would have been in the parking lot on her dinner break. Last Thursday, though, Parks didn't work her shift. Her kids needed her and something, she said, didn’t feel right.

DeLao would have been handing out paychecks to her colleagues. She doesn’t normally work Thursdays, though. She’d gone in last Thursday but left early, around 5:30 p.m.

"I was laughing, like 'you guys have a good day. I'll see you next week,'" she remembered.

So a friend of hers was distributing paychecks to the facility's employees when a man that police have said was a former employee opened fire and killed eight people. Some of the victims had been waiting in line for their checks.

How FedEx shooting unfolded:Timeline shows an 'act of violence' took mere minutes

Karli Smith, 19, was waiting in line for her first check said Parks, who helped train her days earlier.

“Her work ethic was awesome,” Parks said.

DeLao and Parks were among 50 or so who attended the afternoon vigil. Parks remembered the smile in 74-year-old John Weisert's eyes, behind his mask. He died in Thursday's tragedy. And they recalled the positive energy that radiated off Samaria Blackwell, who died, too.

"She'd have a hundred-pound package and toss it like it was nothing," Parks said, laughing at the memory.

Hard to return

For many employees returning to the facility is difficult to imagine.

Even though Singh's mother works the day shift, he said, she knew all of the people who died. Now, he said, he does not know what the future holds.

"My mother is still in shock," he said. "We're trying to make her calm but it's never going to be easy for her to work in the same place again."

Once people are allowed to come back, D.J. Boyles plans to return to check on everyone, but then he plans to quit. While he was not at the facility Thursday night, the shooting was the final push he needed to start looking for a new job, he said.

Mealer said she's planning to return but she hopes that the company improves its safety guidelines.

"Our security guards should at least have Tasers so this doesn't happen again," she said.

Call IndyStar education reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.

Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky by email at shari.rudavsky@indystar.com.

Louisville bus stop shooting: West End reeling after Tyree Smith shot

Mark Pence woke up to gunshots Wednesday morning. Minutes later he was on the corner of Chestnut and Dr. W.J. Hodge streets, covering a teen's wound and begging him to keep breathing.

"I felt that little boy's wound this morning and that changed my life forever," he said hours later, his voice rising as he looked toward the scene of the shooting. "I was in the Marines. I'm used to telling other soldiers and other people in the service, 'You ain't going to die. You're going to be OK.' This morning I had to tell a teenager, 'You ain't going to die. You're going be OK' – and I didn't even know for sure, because there was one right there that was dead."

The victim Pence found is still alive. Tyree Smith wasn't as lucky. The 16-year-old Eastern High School student was killed as he waited for his school bus in an early morning drive-by shooting, the 144th criminal homicide this year in Louisville.

Pence's pain was raw less than 12 hours after Tyree's death – "That's what I woke up to this morning. God gave me another day, and I had to wake up to see somebody else not get another day."

His words reflected the feelings of a Russell community left reeling after another gut-wrenching shooting, which killed Tyree and injured two other teens at the West End bus stop.

More than 100 people gathered Wednesday evening at the street corner to mourn, to remember Tyree, and to use the tragedy as a call to action. What happened that morning can never happen again, activist Kamal Wells said, and he called on others in the community to help make that vision a reality.

"My personal objective is to try and get 50 men – 50 men – to be at 25 bus stops every morning and every evening," Wells said. "The mothers have stepped up, they take the kids to school and everything in this community. That's all I'm asking for, is 50 men to step up and be at the bus stops to protect the kids, because the kids shouldn't be harmed."

More than 15 community members and parents returned to the same corner Thursday morning to light candles and discuss potential ways to end the relentless violence.

Several Louisville Metro Police cruisers along with Jefferson County Public Schools personnel were also present by the intersection as the group gathered from about 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. in the crisp morning air.

"This is our community," former JCPS principal Michelle Pennix said. The group showed up to let children "know this is not normal" and that "we love them."

"If this would have happened by Shelbyville (Road) and Hurstbourne (Parkway)," Pennix said Thursday, referring to roads in the East End, "I think this city honestly would have stopped. We're here to say, everywhere matters."

In a city with more than 700 bus routes, calling for 50 men to protect the bus stops is a strategy that isn't without question. But Wells and others in the Russell community were looking for answers Wednesday night.

Read more:Mother of Tyree Smith, teen killed in shooting, says she's 'lost for words'

'Enough is enough':Louisville reacts to student killed in bus stop drive-by shooting

At the vigil, the Rev. Charles Elliott urged those in the crowd to join him later that evening at Greater Israel Missionary Baptist Church, seven blocks from where Tyree was shot, to pray and to bring what they could to support the teen's family. Timothy Findley Jr., a mayoral candidate and pastor at downtown's Kingdom Fellowship Christian Life Center, canceled his planned Bible study for the evening and instead opened the church's doors to kids who wanted to talk about how the shooting had affected them.

Others outside the church searched for answers of their own.

Stachelle Bussey, a minister and founder of the Hope Buss nonprofit, said Tyree's death could be traced to the poverty that has plagued the West End for decades. In 2018, the most recent year IRS data is available, more than half of individual income tax filings were below $25,000 in 40211, the ZIP code where the shooting occurred.

"At some point, we've got to come together and say enough is enough," Bussey said, noting that she's working with city groups and officials to push back against the violence. "Our kids are dying. It is direct correlation to poverty."

Some Louisville Metro officials were in the crowd. Metro Councilman Jecorey Arthur, for instance, urged the audience to get involved in their communities before handing the microphone to a young boy who called for an end to the violence.

Mayoral candidates including Craig Greenberg, David Nicholson and Shameka Parrish-Wright were among those who listened, with Parrish-Wright at one point offering an impassioned plea for Black women to "step up, stand out and take control of your community," and for Black men to "stand with us."

Wednesday headlines:Kentucky hospitals renew plea for help as COVID surges

Vincent James, Louisville's chief of community building, has been searching for the answers to the city's violence since he decided to take action after a triple homicide took place outside his church in 2012.

Bussey was right when she said it's about poverty, he said. Now, James continued, it's about setting aside differences and working together. Anti-violence groups that were in the crowd can help, he said, but in the end, "it takes all of government, all the law enforcement, it takes the community coming together to be able to resolve these issues."

"We're going to continue to work hard," he said. "We're not going to stop until the bodies stop dropping in our community."

All of Russell was searching for answers Wednesday. But no one had more questions than one of the night's final speakers – Sherita Smith, Tyree's mourning mother.

"My son left out of my door at 6:15. He called me at 6:18 and said, 'Mama, I got shot,'" she told the crowd. "So what am I supposed to do when I'm guiding my son down the right path and he gets killed and hurt by senseless violence?"

Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach.

Louisville bus stop shooting leaves 1 student dead, 2 other injured

A 16-year-old Eastern High School student is dead, two other teens are injured and a community is reeling after a drive-by shooting at a school bus stop in Louisville early Wednesday morning.

As night approached, community members were expected to gather near the site of the shooting, which was reported about 6:30 a.m. at Dr. W.J. Hodge and West Chestnut streets in the Russell neighborhood. Jefferson County Public Schools officials were making plans to ensure affected students have access to crisis counseling.

'Enough is enough.':Louisville reacts to student killed in bus stop drive-by shooting

In total, Louisville Metro Police said three students were struck during the shooting.

One of the boys, 16-year-old Tyree Smith, was later pronounced dead at University of Louisville Hospital. The second boy, 13, was sent to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A 14-year-old girl was grazed on the ankle and declined medical treatment.

‘He had his whole life ahead of him’

Sharonda Smith, who said she was the aunt of the slain boy, said he was a junior at Eastern. She said she believes the location was the target, not her nephew.

"That bus stop was a target for whatever reason," she said. "But all I know is my nephew, he went to school, he went to work, he was in 11th grade. He’s never had a problem. He don’t get calls home from the teachers regarding his behavior or anything.”

The Rev. Charles Elliott, pastor of King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church, which is a few blocks from Wednesday’s shooting scene, said the boy’s death made him think of how, decades ago, he was “protesting for the right for Black kids to have the same opportunity that white kids have” and attend the same schools.

But just as Elliott noted Louisville suffered “many shootings” about 50 years ago, the longtime pastor and civil rights leader said he wonders how much has really changed in the city.

“It’s heartbreaking for me now to see that my marching and my protesting for that is in vain,” Elliott said while inside his church office Wednesday.

“…We can’t police our way out of this,” added Elliott, who is nearing his 60th year in ministry. “It’s not actually a school problem (either). The problem is sin and because we have no respect for one another no more."

Related:Another grim milestone in Louisville: Nonfatal shootings of kids top last year's total

At Eastern High School, counselors from a JCPS “special response team” were on hand to work with students and staff, district spokesman Mark Hebert said.

“Our primary goal is to give (students) a safe space to talk, give them positive coping skills,” JCPS counseling specialist Michelle Sircy said. “And we're triaging students and identifying students that may need more additional, intensive counseling intervention after the crisis team has left.”

Investigation, discussions of crime issues ongoing

No suspects had been identified as of Wednesday afternoon, according to LMPD officials.

Police were looking for a 2019 Jeep Cherokee with an Illinois license plate, number BD91644, in connection with the case. Anyone with information on the vehicle is asked to call LMPD at 502-574-5673.

With Wednesday morning’s shooting, 21 children and teens have been killed in Louisville this year, according to preliminary LMPD data. All but one of this year’s child victims died by gunfire.

That’s more than the number killed in all of 2020, when 16 children and teens younger than 18 were among the city’s record-high 173 homicide victims.

Louisville is not alone in grappling with escalating gun violence. But Jefferson County’s juvenile homicide rate of 4.7 slayings per 100,000 children was more than twice the national rate of 2.1 from 2010-19, data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed.

JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said Wednesday keeping school bus stops safe has to be a “community issue.” A bus driver shortage has already left JCPS running fewer bus routes than it should be, he said.

“We should have 900-and-something but we have 770 … We struggle to run 770 bus lines with drivers. And so, I would say, once again, how are we going to man, or what would we do, with 770 bus stops that are in our community?”

Pollio said JCPS wants to be part of the solution to youth gun violence but should not be expected to solve the crisis on its own.

“I got asked recently in a meeting I was at with community leaders, ‘What are we doing about homelessness in JCPS?’ And that really bothers me,” he said. “We are educators in a school system. And yes, we've got to provide these services to our kids. But I just don't know when in our nation the school became the answer to all of our community's problems and ills.”

Many local leaders expressed frustration with violence in the community and encouraged community members to get involved in the wake of Wednesday’s events.

"My job is to pass laws," said Metro Councilman Jecorey Arthur, D-4th District. "Mayor Fischer's job is to make sure that those laws actually happen. The chief's job is to make sure those laws are enforced. What is your job? Everyone in Louisville is responsible for Louisville."

'What is your job?':Louisville councilman calls for action after fatal bus stop shooting

More coverage:Louisville police chief's push for school police after bus stop shooting called 'shameful'

Councilman Anthony Piagentini, R-19th District, agreed, saying: "If you weren't plugged in and engaged in this problem, then you are part of the problem."

But not all were unified in their responses.

Comments from LMPD Chief Erika Shields in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting calling for JCPS to put officers in schools drew criticism from some.

"We can’t sit here with our thumbs up our ass, do nothing different and think we won’t be back at this podium," she said at a press conference Wednesday.

JCPS board member Chris Kolb, a staunch opponent to school police, called Shields' remarks "shameful and reprehensible."

"I am absolutely disgusted that it took @LMPD Chief Shields less than six hours to cynically use the murder of a child to push for a measure that will do nothing to improve safety and will further marginalize black students," Kolb tweeted.

LMPD pulled out all of its officers, which made up the majority of school resource officers at the time, in July 2019 due to budget cuts. The district's school board later ended the remaining contracts for police.

For now, Pollio said, JCPS personnel are planning to be at the bus stop early Thursday morning and possibly throughout the week.

“We do stay at an event for as long as we're needed,” said Sircy, the JCPS counselor. “So, depending on the situation, we may stay for half a day, and we have stayed at a school for as long as a week before just to provide more intensive, wrap-around counseling support services to students that need that."

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated the age of the teenage student who was treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. LMPD now says he is 13.

Reach Billy Kobin at bkobin@courierjournal.com.

Contact Ayana Archie at aarchie@courier-journal.com or follow on Twitter @AyanaArchie. Support strong local journalism by subscribing to The Courier Journal.

Jefferson Ave., Buffalo Tops mass shooting location, asks why us

BUFFALO, N.Y. — People here simply call it "Jefferson Ave," a historic neighborhood on the city's near East Side.

Jefferson Avenue and surrounding streets form a place where people live and work and shop. It's a place to buy books, coffee, clothing, groceries. A record shop here once nurtured the musical interests of a young Rick James.

Community members know each other like family, people who live here say, and look out for each other like family, too. Elders gather to pass the time sitting in cars parked beneath the shade of trees that dot the perimeter of the Family Dollar parking lot. People who used to call it home still come back, drawn by the pull of family, friends and community.

Then, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, a stranger arrived.

A white 18-year-old gunman drove three hours from his home to the Tops Friendly Markets store and opened fire, officials say. Ten people were killed and three others injured in a shooting authorities believe was racially motivated. Eleven of the 13 victims were Black.

In a matter of minutes, the attack transformed the tight-knit neighborhood of Jefferson Ave into an epicenter of raw grief and outrage. The community was overwhelmed with questions, as people struggled to make sense of the unimaginable: Why Buffalo? How could this have happened? What will they do now?

Glen Marshall was drawn to the Tops on Saturday by the same sense of connection that draws people back to this neighborhood even after they've moved away. He wasn't present during the shooting but said it's important to be present now.

"This is the neighborhood Tops. This is the Black community — this is the heart of the Black community," said Marshall, who is from the area. "If we don't live in this community, we grew up in this community. Everybody comes back to the community."

Jefferson Avenue runs north and south through Buffalos' East Side, where 78% of the residents are people of color, according to a 2019 economic development report. Forty-two percent of the city's residents live on the East Side and 40% of the city's working-age population call it home. American Community Survey data show that the median household income in the zip code area that encircles the Tops market is less than $25,000.

On Sunday, hundreds of people crowded together near the scene of the shooting, mourning together in a vigil and march.

But they began gathering well before then. Before outsiders descended on their community, neighbors were there, supporting each other.

Just hours after the shooting, dozens of neighborhood residents congregated in the parking lots and sidewalks near the Tops. Two older men had been sitting in their usual spot, a parked minivan, when one of them heard gunshots. He was in shock, he said, and couldn't shake the question from his mind — why had the gunman picked Buffalo?

Five longtime residents of the neighborhood, all in their 30s and 40s, stood watching the scene unfold after the shooting. All of them, rattled by what had occurred.

Misty Walker, a lifelong Buffalonian, was mourning one of the victims, a retired Buffalo police officer working in the store as a security guard who confronted the shooter. She called him a "good, good man."

Many residents on the East Side are older, with low incomes and limited transportation. Lemar Williams, who has lived in Buffalo since the 1970s, had planned to take his nephew to work at Tops that Saturday. But his nephew got a call that he didn’t have to go to work that morning — moments later, he found out why.

Like many in the neighborhood, Williams wants to know why no one stopped the shooter before he executed the plans he'd posted online.

The suspect may have been known to police. Last year, the suspect threatened an attack at his high school, resulting in a referral for a mental health evaluation, a law enforcement official told USA TODAY on Sunday. The incident was reviewed by state authorities at the time.

EXTREMIST VIOLENCE:Buffalo attack highlights most lethal domestic threat

On Sunday, Takesha Leonard of Buffalo cried during a prayer vigil across the street from the Tops.

“I want to know why the government didn’t have no scope on this kid,” Williams said. “The government got a scope on everybody, so why didn’t they have one on this young man that assassinated and killed people?”

Jemar Amine, Williams’ nephew, was outside the Tops following the shooting. The 21-year-old was visibly shocked and hurt — his friends were working in the store at the time of the shooting.

“Buffalo is Buffalo,” he said. Racism "ain’t nothing new. I can’t even say that’s crazy.”

Marshall was concerned people wouldn't want to shop at the Tops anymore, haunted by the massacre that unfolded in the heart of their community.

Williams was worried about a more immediate concern: Along Jefferson Ave, where many people don't have cars, Tops is their only grocery store.

Tops has since announced a free bus shuttle service to the next closest location, and community groups have begun organizing to help provide groceries to people in need.

But in the immediate wake of tragedy, in a neighborhood forced to grapple with overwhelming questions of "why" and "how," Williams asked one more:

“Where are we supposed to shop at tomorrow?"

Adria R. Walker is the Upstate New York storytelling reporter for the USA TODAY Network's New York State Team. Follow her on Twitter at @adriawalkr.

Michigan State shooting live updates: 3 dead, 5 wounded after ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. – A clearer picture began to emerge Tuesday about the 43-year-old shooter with a previous gun violation who killed three Michigan State University students late Monday and critically wounded five others, but police were still searching for a motive.

Authorities said Anthony Dwayne McRae had once been on probation for the gun offense and had a history of mental health struggles. He shot and killed himself after a manhunt that ended in a confrontation with police miles from campus, authorities said Tuesday.

University police identified the three dead students as sophomores Arielle Anderson and Brian Fraser and junior Alexandria Verner. All three hailed from the Detroit metropolitan area.

“It's a family's worst nightmare and it’s happening far too often in this country,” President Joe Biden said in Washington. “We have to do something to stop the gun violence that’s ripping apart our communities.''

Biden also released a statement calling for Congress to pass specific measures to tighten gun laws nationwide, noting that Tuesday marks the fifth anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The president spoke by phone with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, an MSU graduate who said at a morning briefing, “Our Spartan community is reeling today.”

Investigators were still looking into why McRae fired inside the Berkey Hall academic building and the student union shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday, leading to a campus lockdown and a three-hour search for the killer.

“We have absolutely no idea what the motive was,” said Chris Rozman, deputy chief of campus police, adding that McRae, of Lansing, was not a student or a Michigan State employee.

Developments:

►The five wounded students remained in critical condition Tuesday, a Sparrow Hospital official said.

►Rozman said two people were killed and several wounded at Berkey Hall and another was killed at the student union before the gunman apparently fled.

►Several prayer services and vigils are scheduled to honor the victims, including one at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church in the Detroit suburb that was home to two of the students killed in the shooting.

►The university canceled classes, sports and other activities for at least 48 hours, a time for those affected to collect their thoughts and grieve, interim President Teresa Woodruff said. "Our Spartan hearts are broken,'' she said.

MASS KILLING DATABASE:Revealing trends, details and anguish of every US event since 2006

How the events unfolded

Rozman said at a briefing Tuesday that authorities received multiple calls of a shooting at Berkey Hall at around 8:18 p.m. Monday.

"There was an absolutely overwhelming police response to that call," he said, and officers arrived within minutes.

Minutes later, calls came in reporting a second shooting scene at the student union building nearby, he said, sending officers scrambling there.

Rozman said police "had no idea'' about McRae's whereabouts for nearly the first three hours of the manhunt before his image, captured on school security cameras, was sent to news media around 11:15 p.m. Soon after, an “alert citizen” spotted him in the Lansing area and notified police, Rozman said.

They found McRae in an industrial area about 5 miles from campus, and he shot himself in the confrontation, Rozman said. Four hours after the first shots were reported, police announced the man’s death.

“This is still fluid,” Rozman said. “There are still crime scenes that are being processed, and we still are in the process of putting together the pieces to try to understand what happened.”

Plea bargain to gun charge in 2019 allowed shooter to buy weapons

McRae pleaded guilty in 2019 to a weapons-related charge in Lansing, according to court and Michigan Department of Corrections records, and relatives and neighbors told the Detroit Free Press he fired a gun dangerously in his backyard.

McRae was originally charged with a felony, and a conviction would have prevented him from legally owning a gun in the future. But McRae agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor, a charge that did not bar his ability to buy a firearm after he successfully completed probation.

Chris Gautz, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said a Lansing police officer had spotted McRae near an abandoned building at about 1:30 a.m. one night. The officer questioned McRae, who admitted he had a gun and did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon, Gautz said.

The officer found a Ruger LCP .380 semi-automatic pistol in McRae's pants pocket, according to court records. He was charged with a violation of concealed-carry law and possessing a loaded weapon in a vehicle; he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor weapon-in-a-vehicle charge and the other was dropped, according to court records. Gautz said McRae was placed on probation in late 2019 and was “successfully discharged” on May 14, 2021.

– Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press

McRae's brother 'still trying to process this whole thing'

McRae’s older brother, Michael McRae Jr., 45, said he doesn’t “have a clue” what prompted Anthony McRae’s shooting spree on campus. His brother “stayed to himself” and they had grown apart over the years, he said. Michael McRae lives in Delaware. The brothers grew up in New Jersey. Anthony McRae and his parents moved to Michigan about 20 years ago after his father was transferred from New Jersey by General Motors.

“This just don’t seem real, that he would be able to do anything like this,” the older brother told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Tuesday. “I am still trying to process this whole thing.”

The last time the brothers spoke was at their mother’s funeral two years ago. Anthony McRae had no children, no spouse and no friends his older brother knew of. Michael McRae said his younger brother worked at warehouse jobs in Lansing.

“He kind of secluded himself," said Michael McRae, who learned what happened from their father Tuesday morning.

“I am deeply sorry for this whole thing,” McRae said.

The suspected gunman shared a house in Lansing with his father, also named Michael McRae, who told CNN his son was a ''mama's boy'' who spiraled after his mother died in 2020.

"Ever since my wife died, my son began to change,'' the elder McRae said in a phone interview with the network. "He was getting more and more bitter, angry and bitter. So angry, evil angry. ... He began to really let himself go. His teeth were falling out. He stopped cutting his hair. He looked like a wolfman.''

– Christine MacDonald and Dave Boucher, Detroit Free Press

College mass shooters typically have ties to campuses

Nearly all of the mass shooters at places of higher education in recent history have had a relationship with the campus, according to The Violence Project, a nonprofit research center. There have been nine mass shootings that killed four or more people in or around college or university settings since 1966, and in eight of them the gunmen were current or former students or employees, co-founder James Densley said.

The shooters were all men, with an average age of 28 – the youngest was 22 and the oldest was 43 – and three were white, he said. Like the Michigan State shooter, five of the nine died by suicide.

– Grace Hauck, USA TODAY

Students sheltered in place or hid where they could

Ben Finkelstein, a senior, said he was sheltering in place in his room.

"I don't think I've ever been this scared," he said. "I've been listening to the police scanner for an hour."

Finkelstein said he was hiding under a pile of dirty laundry in his first-floor room. He closed all of his blinds and turned off his lights.

"It's far too late for this to be called a wake-up call," he said. "The sad truth is I doubt we're going to be the last. Other than that, I'm praying for everybody."

Kayal Ghassan, a 19-year-old fisheries and wildlife student, was eating in another building on campus when word of the shooting spread, he said. He noticed other students began crowding at the doors.

Students were worried and panicking, he said. Many were calling their families. “Everyone was running in fear," he said. "I saw people climbing over other people.”

Ghassan and others ran to a nearby parking lot, where police immediately asked if they saw the suspect and knew what he looked like.

“I was fearing for my life, honestly. I’ve never experienced something like this,” he said.

Gunman had note indicating possible threat to schools in New Jersey

Police in Ewing Township, New Jersey, said information received during the investigation indicated the MSU shooter had local ties to the township. When McRae was found by police in Michigan, he had a note in his pocket that "indicated a threat to two Ewing Public Schools," Ewing police said in a Facebook post. An investigation revealed that McRae had a history of mental health problems, police said.

Ewing Public Schools were closed for the day as a precaution. Officers from Ewing and surrounding agencies were stationed at all schools and in the township.

Five wounded students remained in critical condition Tuesday

Dr. Denny Martin, chief medical officer at Sparrow Hospital, choked back tears as he described the effort to save the lives of the five wounded students rushed to his building. He said that four of the five needed immediate surgery and that all five remained in critical condition Tuesday.

He lauded physicians and staff at the hospital for dealing with the mass casualties.

"We practice this very often but hope we never have to do it," he said. "It was a sad but very proud night for all of us here."

Who was the shooter?

Rozman said McRae was located at about 11:35 Monday night in Lansing by officers about 5 miles away in an industrial area. McRae killed himself and a firearm was recovered at the scene, Rozman said. McRae was not a student or employee of the school and no connection to the school was immediately determined.

McRae was on probation for 18 months until May 2021 for possessing a loaded, concealed gun without a permit, according to the state Corrections Department.

Rozman said authorities reviewed security camera footage after the shooting, found frames that included the shooter and released his photo. Officers following up on a tip called in "from an alert citizen" found the killer, he said.

"We want to sincerely thank our community for their help," campus police said in a Twitter post. "Because of the quick release of the suspect photos through our campus security cameras, a caller’s tip was able to lead officers to the suspect."

Student near shooting had lost friends in high school rampage

The mother of a freshman Michigan State student says her daughter was traumatized by gun violence at school for the second time in less than two years. Jennifer Mancini told the Detroit Free Press her daughter was at Oxford High School north of Detroit in November 2021 when a fellow student opened fire at the school, killing four people. Mancini said two of the victims were close friends of her daughter.

Mancini, who asked that her daughter's name not be used, said her daughter was across the street from the student union Monday when gunfire erupted. Her daughter saw people running out of the building and called her mother.

"She said, 'Mom, I hear gunshots … What's going on?' " Mancini said. "She said, 'Get me out of here.'"

Her daughter's father went to get her after the lockdown ended. Read more here.

– Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press

3 KILLED AT MICHIGAN STATE:Suspect dead after hourslong search

‘It's the same cycle over and over again,’ says Parkland survivor

Exactly five years since a gunman fatally shot 17 people and wounded 17 others at his high school in Parkland, Florida, David Hogg awoke Tuesday to news of another mass shooting, this time at Michigan State University.

“It's just that it's really disheartening and frustrating when this stuff continues to happen. It's the same cycle over and over again,” said Hogg, 22, now a senior at Harvard University studying history and political science.

Hogg noted students at Michigan State who were affected by the shooting included survivors of the mass shootings at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan, in 2021, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012.

“It’s awful,” he said. “It's becoming increasingly common that kids don't just go through a school shooting but that they go through multiple.”

At the same time, Hogg said he hasn’t lost hope. He’s focused on building consensus around gun violence prevention.

“We need to have a dialogue, not a debate. That's the bottom line here,” Hogg said. “Debate is getting us nowhere. We need to focus on what we can agree on.”

-- Grace Hauck

MSU moves to emergency operations

Interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff said Tuesday that the school has moved to emergency operations for two days to allow students, staff and faculty "to think, grieve and be together" after a "day of shock and heartbreak."

The school has 50,000 students, almost 20,000 of whom live on campus. A Family Assistance Center was set up for families to pick up their on-campus students. Counselors were available for staff and students.

"We are devastated at the loss of life,'' Woodruff said. "Our campus grieves, we will all grieve. We will change over time. We cannot allow this to continue to happen again."

Bacon reported from Arlington, Va. Contributing: Paul Egan, Andrea Sahouri, Mike Ellis, Emily Lawler, Mark Johnson and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY NETWORK; The Associated Press

After Kedarie: Iowa teen's death leaves city reeling

Courtney Crowder

ccrowder@dmreg.com

BURLINGTON, Ia. — The teenage girl inched toward the open coffin of Kedarie Pierre Johnson, stopping short of the rug where mourners paused to pay respects. Her shoulders convulsed with rolling sobs as she wrapped her arms around her waist and shook her head.

She attempted to approach again, but for every step forward, she took one step back, as though if she never made it to the casket, Johnson’s death wouldn’t be real; if she could just hold off, maybe he would come bounding into the Burlington High School gym like he did so often.

Disbelief was a common reaction to the shooting death of 16-year-old Johnson, a well-liked junior who many said lived life to the beat of his own drum. His body was found last week amid overgrowth in an alley in Burlington’s South Hill neighborhood.

In the wake of Johnson’s death, the greater Burlington area has rallied around his family, doling out hugs and meals as frequently as tissues. And as the family mourns, the community is searching for ways to heal itself from the painful wound of losing a life so young.

“Death comes in many ways: It can be a thief in the night or an angel of mercy,” said Burton Prugh, a funeral director and lifelong Burlington resident. “When people live a long time, you’re celebrating a life well-lived. But when you lose young people who haven’t had a chance to experience life, you’re mourning all the things they will never get to do, the things they will never get to see.”

“When someone is taken like this, it affects the whole community,” he continued. “This sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen in Burlington.”

No one was more paralyzed than Kedarie’s mother, Katrina Johnson, who moved to the small Iowa city from Chicago’s South Side five years ago, hoping to escape the city’s systemic violence.

“I (brought) my boys down here for a different life and to have a better life … (to) keep them away from the negativity,” she said the morning after her son’s funeral. The ornate urn holding Kedarie’s ashes sat just out of reach as she waited for a train to Chicago, where she planned to hold a memorial service with his extended family.

Johnson’s killing is the first this year in the Mississippi River town, which has a population of about 25,000. Burlington had three homicides in 2015. In the previous four years, it had four total. Two of last year’s killings remain unsolved.

While there isn’t a rash of violence in Burlington, many in the community said they believe crime is increasing.

The local police have “every detective” working to solve Johnson’s killing, said Lt. Jeff Klein, commander of Burlington’s criminal investigation division, but no arrests have been made. He said there isn’t evidence so far to connect the killing to drugs, gangs or Johnson’s sexual orientation or gender identity, both of which were fluid.

While sometimes reported to be a transgender teen, Johnson’s status isn’t that simple, those who knew him said. Most of the time he presented as male, but he loved to wear hair extensions and sometimes went by the name Kandicee. He had girlfriends, friends said, but also liked men.

In general, he didn’t feel confined to either sex and, at 16, he was on the cusp of “figuring himself out,” said his pastor, Nathan Williams.

RELATED: Slain Burlington teen remembered for style, dance

Burlington police balk at calling his death a “hate crime,” but to Katrina Johnson and many other community members, it’s the only answer to the gnawing question of “Why Kedarie?”

“I truly believe that it was a hate crime, I do, because if it wasn’t, he’d still be here,” his mother said.

Her voice caught in her throat as tears emerged from under her sunglasses: “My son was only a child, and because of his sexuality, his life is gone.”

Passing in front of Johnson’s casket, some of the hundreds of students who attended the funeral collapsed into sorrowful wails, while others cried silently. A few let out staccato breaths, a sort of physical manifestation of the jarring effect of seeing a peer in a coffin.

After saying a prayer at the casket, the eyes of Johnson’s friend Demetria Dean were painfully puffy, her face as red as her Chicago Bulls T-shirt.

“I’ve been sending him Facebook messages,” she said, casting her eyes downward. “I know he can’t respond. But I want him to know I’m still here, I still care. Every day since it happened, I’ve been waking up and hoping there’ll be a response. He still responds in my heart.”

Johnson liked to be the center of attention, friends said, and had plans to be famous. He loved to sing, and even more to dance, and was known for his signature boisterous laugh. He’d do cartwheels or take off his shoes and slide down the school hallways on his way to class.

“He had this beautiful smile, and you never caught him down or feeling any kind of way except happy,” said Shaunda Campbell, a Burlington High counselor. “There wasn’t a mean bone in his body.”

And Johnson was selfless, friends said. Mona Ash remembered seeing him one summer morning riding his bike while trying to balance two bursting bags of McDonald’s on his handlebars.

“He said he’d just received his first paycheck,” Ash recalled, “and he wanted to bring his family the biggest breakfast he could buy.”

Heidi Quinn, 33, said if her family was ever running low on food, a bag of groceries would appear at her front door. It was often from Johnson, she said.

Johnson didn’t have enemies, according to schoolmates. He seemed to be friends with everyone.

And even though Johnson was “figuring out” his gender and sexuality, many said kids at school accepted him, calling him whichever name he wanted to use that day, not batting an eye at his leggings, makeup or beloved hair weave.

“He had better hair than I did, which always made me mad,” Alisha Morris, 17, said facetiously, cracking a small grin through her tears.

In the days after the killing, a makeshift memorial of flowers, colorful teddy bears and handmade signs reading “Rest in Paradise Kedarie” sprung up where Johnson’s body was found. When heavy rain hit, a neighbor brought the bears into her house. She returned them as the sun came out, cushioning them from the remaining moisture with garbage bags.

This small kindness is emblematic of how Burlington has come together since Johnson’s death, pastor Williams said. Money was collected to help the family, sympathy flowers were delivered and an overwhelming number of people called, offering to lend a hand, Katrina Johnson said.

“It wasn’t even just people who knew him,” Williams said. “It was people who knew him through people who knew him or just those who heard the news and wanted to help however they could.”

The high school brought in a crisis team of counselors and let students spend the days after the killing in the library. The school even opened its doors to the public, creating a space for anyone who wanted to grieve.

To mourners gathered at the memorial Wednesday, Johnson’s murder is the latest event in what they said feels like an increase in crime. South Hill business owner Dana Atkins said each new incident of violence feels like ripping a Band-Aid off a wound: All the resilience the area has built up tears off immediately, and the hurt is raw again.

As people search for answers, they also begin to point fingers. Some community members described an influx of people coming to Burlington from other parts of the country and bringing “baggage” with them.

“When you find graffiti on garages and businesses and things like that that the community never saw before, you have to take note that something is coming that wasn’t here before,” Atkins said.

But Williams cautioned that painting all nonnative Burlingtonians with the same brush isn’t fair: “I believe the majority of families come here for a better life for their children,” he said. “I do know there are people that aren’t coming here for the betterment of their family and, yes, they bring an element of violence with them.”

Expecting almost a thousand people for Johnson’s funeral, the high school gym’s basketball court was filled with folding chairs. But as students, faculty members and other mourners filed through the reception line, they sat bunched like sardines on the bleachers near the casket, their drawn faces illuminated by the low lamps lighting Johnson’s body.

When the funeral began, Johnson’s brother, Cedric Peterson, crumbled like a tower of blocks, folding in on himself as he wept. His mother got up and hugged her son from behind, his fingers leaving marks on her skin from the intensity of the embrace.

Before the funeral, Katrina Johnson had no idea how much Kedarie meant to the community. But it was clear from the emotion in the room and the stories mourners told her that he was people’s “sunshine.”

“He loved living,” said Campbell, the school counselor. “I am grateful to God that I got to spend the little time with him that I did get to, because he is a special kid to me. You don’t meet people that like in your life very often.”

While Burlington is still reeling from the killing, many in town promised to fight the recent violence and do what they can to help police find justice for Johnson.

“If everybody takes a stand, we can out do the violence,” Atkins said. “We are a community of love and caring (and that) can overpower violence without a doubt.”

Despite this tragedy, Katrina Johnson said she won’t relocate to Chicago.

“I don’t think this town will ever be the same, but I won’t go back home … because I have to think about my (other) son,” she said. “I refuse to take him back.”

When the first chords of the funeral’s last song, Lauryn Hill’s version of the gospel standard “Joyful, Joyful,” began to play over the speakers, Katrina Johnson dried her eyes and readied for the last surprise she’d ever give her son. “I knew I had to stop the tears,” she said.

As the slow, methodical strings of the song’s ballad portion gave way to a pop beat — “Drive the dark of doubt away … Fill us with the light of day” — she jumped up and started dancing with arms outstretched, a bundle of wet Kleenex in one hand.

Soon, more friends and family joined in, focusing their revelry around the casket. Even though their eyes were still puffy and their faces still stained with tears, everyone swaying to the music wore a wide smile.

And in the center was Johnson — just where he would have wanted to be.