Another Parent, More Kids= ANOTHER Murder/Suicide

(CNN) -- Investigators have found the bodies of three small children and the father who allegedly abducted them from their home in Columbus, Georgia, two weeks ago, the FBI said Wednesday.

Eddie Harrington threatened to kill his children before disappearing with them, police say.

1 of 3

"It is my sad duty to report that deceased bodies of these children and Eddie Harrington were located this afternoon," said FBI Special Agent Gerald Green.

A coroner would confirm the identities, he added.

The remains were discovered in a wooded area of Columbus by a person walking nearby, Green said. Video Watch the FBI say the bodies were in a car »

Eddie Harrington, 28, whom police described as depressed, took the children March 5, police said.

Before he left, Harrington sent a letter indicating his intent to kill his twin 23-month-old girls, Aliyah and Agana Battle, and his son, Cedric Harrington, 3, officials said.

The day before Wednesday's grisly discovery, the children's mother told CNN's Nancy Grace that Harrington had threatened them before.

"He's just told me he'll do anything to keep me at that time, and he said that he was going to take them and ... kill himself and the kids," Agena Battle said.

"But then later on, he told me that it was just to prove to me that, you know, what he'll do for me."

Battle also described the moment earlier this month when she knew something was wrong.

"I got home and I realized that the kids weren't there, and Eddie wasn't there either, and when I looked on the dresser and read the note, that's when I realized that my kids are in trouble," she said.

A week ago, a tearful Battle publicly begged her boyfriend not to harm the children.

"I am asking the public to please help me. I want my children home where they belong, with me," she said at an FBI news conference.


"Please, if you see Eddie, the car or the children, please call 911. Please help me and keep them in your prayers." Video Watch the mother's tearful plea »

A child abduction alert was issued in Georgia after the children disappeared.

"We have great concern for the safety of these children," Green said at the time.

It was unclear what sparked Harrington's decision to take the children, authorities said. source
***
THIS IS MESSED UP!!
My heart and prayers goes out to the family.

Come See What's Poppin'at Bria's Own Words, my OTHER blog!

Here We Go Again...Shooter Shoots Others, Then Self...sigh

Jim Killam/AP
BREAKING NEWS UPDATE:

A sixth person shot by a gunman at Northern Illinois University has died, the coroner's office tells CNN.

**********
Gunman kills 5, then self at Northern Illinois University

source


DEKALB, Ill. — A former student dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns from the stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, killing five students and injuring 16 others before committing suicide, authorities said.

The gunman fatally shot four women and a man in a "brief, rapid-fire assault" that sent terrified students running for cover, university President John Peters said. Four died at the scene, including the gunman, and the other two died at a hospital, he said.

Students are consoled outside Cole Hall at Northern Illinois University after a shooting on campus Thursday.

• More photos
• Watch the video

Witnesses in the geology class said "someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun," Peters said.

Lauren Carr said she was sitting in the third row of the lecture hall around 3 p.m. when she saw the shooter walk through a door on the right-hand side of the stage, pointing a gun straight ahead.

"I personally Army-crawled halfway up the aisle," said Carr, a 20-year-old sophomore. "I said I could get up and run or I could die here."

She said a student in front of her was bleeding, "but he just kept running."

"I heard this girl scream, 'Run, he's reloading the gun.'"

Student Jerry Santoni was in a back row when he saw the gunman enter a service door to the stage.

"I saw him shoot one round at the teacher," he said. "After that, I proceeded to get down as fast as I could."

Santoni dived down, hitting his head the seat in front of him, leaving a knot about half the size of a pingpong ball on his forehead.

The teacher, a graduate student, was wounded but was expected to recover, the school president said. He did not give details of the injuries.

Peters said the gunman was a former graduate student in sociology at NIU, but was not currently enrolled at the 25,000-student campus about 65 miles west of Chicago.

"It appears he may have been a student somewhere else," University Police Chief Donald Grady said, adding that police had no apparent motive.

Seventeen victims were brought to Kishwaukee Community Hospital in DeKalb, according to spokeswoman Theresa Komitas. One died, two were admitted and three were discharged; five are being evaluated and six others were transferred to other hospitals in critical condition. At least one male died at OSF St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford, an official said.

Michael Gentile was meeting with two of his students directly beneath the lecture hall when the shootings happened. He could hear the chaos a few feet above his head.

"The shotgun blast must have been so loud," said Gentile, a 27-year-old media studies instructor. "It sounded like something was dropping down the stairs... We had no idea what this was."

Then, shorter, sharper noises he recognized as handgun shots.

"There was a pretty quick succession ... just pow, pow, pow," said Gentile, who didn't leave his office for about 90 minutes. He used a surveillance camera just outside his office to confirm that the people knocking on his door were police.

George Gaynor, a senior geography student, who was in Cole Hall when the shooting happened, told the student newspaper the Northern Star that the shooter was "a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on."

He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic.

"Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg," Gaynor said outside just minutes after the shooting occurred. "It was like five minutes before class ended too."

Witnesses said the young man carried a shotgun and a pistol. Student Edward Robinson told WLS that the gunman appeared to target students in one part of the lecture hall.

"It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot," Robinson said. "He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at."

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sent 15 agents to the scene, according to spokesman Thomas Ahern. He said information about the weapons involved would be sent to the ATF's national database in Washington and given urgent priority. The FBI also was assisting.

All classes were canceled Thursday night and the campus was closed on Friday. Students were urged to call their parents "as soon as possible" and were offered counseling at any residence hall, according to the school Web site.

The school was closed for one day during final exam week in December after campus police found threats, including racial slurs and references to shootings earlier in the year at Virginia Tech, scrawled on a bathroom wall in a dormitory. Police determined after an investigation that there was no imminent threat and the campus was reopened. Peters said he knew of no connection between that incident and Thursday's attack. Peters said he knew of no connection between that incident and Thursday's attack.

The shooting was the fourth at a U.S. school within a week.

On Feb. 8, a woman shot two fellow students to death before committing suicide at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge. In Memphis, Tenn., a 17-year-old is accused of shooting and critically wounding a fellow student Monday during a high school gym class, and the 15-year-old victim of a shooting at an Oxnard, Calif., junior high school has been declared brain dead.

*sigh, smh*


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Breakin News: Female Student Gets In On Murder-Suicide Action at LA Tech College

Stop the Madness!

(CNN) -- A female student shot two other women and herself Friday morning inside a classroom on the campus of Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge, authorities said.



(Emergency personnel gather at a building at Louisiana Technical College, where three people died Friday, above)

Baton Rouge police Sgt. Don Kelly said officers responding to a 911 call about 8:30 a.m. found all three dead in a second-floor classroom.

"There was mass pandemonium, people running," Kelly told The Associated Press. "One officer -- the first into the classroom -- told me he could still smell gunpowder."

The names of the dead were not released.

About 20 people were in the classroom at the time of the shooting, Kelly said. He would not give the room number or say what kind of class it was. Video Watch Kelly describe the sequence of events »

No shots were fired anywhere else, Kelly said.


"It's all self-contained in one classroom," Kelly said. The shooter was not believed to have left the room at any point, he said, and "no other students outside the classroom were in any danger."

Police will interview the other students who were in the classroom to find out why the shooting occurred, Kelly said. source

***
**Sentiments expressed concerning Charles Lee Thornton is also echoed on this post** smh

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Details Are Still Forthcoming...

Megan Meier 13 (below), committed suicide
due to cruelty incurred at Myspace

Blogger poses as woman tied to MySpace suicide source

*Person writing blog claims it is being written by Lori Drew
*Blog lays out Drew's would-be motives for getting involved in MySpace hoax
*Victim of hoax committed suicide after being tormented over Internet
*Drew is not the writer of the blog, her lawyer

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- Police are investigating Internet postings of someone posing as the woman linked to an online hoax played on a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide.

A portrait of Megan Meier, 13, who committed suicide last October after receiving cruel messages on MySpace.

The woman's family believes the postings are an effort to damage its reputation following the death of Megan Meier.
A blog entitled "Megan Had It Coming" surfaced more than two weeks ago. Earlier this week, the person writing the blog claimed the messages were being written by Lori Drew.
Lori Drew's attorney said Friday that she is not the writer.
The St. Charles County sheriff's department is investigating the blog postings on Blogger.com to see whether a crime has been committed, a spokesman said.
"Any Internet message that purports to be a member of the Drew family is being managed by an impostor and undoubtedly is being done for the purpose of further damaging the Drews' reputation," the family said in a statement.
The detailed blog lays out Drew's would-be motives for getting involved with the MySpace hoax against Meier.

Lori Drew's lawyer, Jim Briscoe, said Google Inc., which owns Blogger.com, has been contacted. A Google spokesman said the company is reviewing the impersonation allegation.
Meier thought she was corresponding over MySpace with a cute boy named "Josh Evans" online. The boy never existed. Instead, Drew, her 18-year-old employee and 13-year-old daughter, and Megan's one-time friend, helped create the hoax.
When messages from the fictional boy and others on the Internet turned cruel, including one stating the world would be better off without her, Megan hanged herself in October 2006.
Drew, a mother of two in her 40s, has denied saying hurtful things to the girl over the Internet, and prosecutors have said they found no grounds for charges against the woman.

Details of the case emerged last month, and the story drew international attention.
Since then, the Drews have been besieged with negative publicity, and Meier's death prompted her hometown of Dardenne Prairie to adopt a law engaging in Internet harassment a misdemeanor.
Now, elected officials say the law's first use could be to prevent possible harassment against the Drews.
"I would say that would be a possibility, that they could be the first," Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. "A law is a law is a law. You can't discriminate."
Briscoe said the Drews have not asked police to look into the blog postings.
St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas said he heard about the postings through the news media and asked the sheriff's department to investigate.
Banas said he had no idea if someone might be charged under the Dardenne Prairie measure. He explained any charges he brings are under state law, not under local ordinances.
The prosecutor said Internet harassment and stalking are crimes in Missouri under state law, but noted the sheriff's department is still investigating if a crime has been committed.

***

Whether a blogger is guilty of this or not, the fact that most likely an adult contributed to the death of this child is disgusting. Kids have so much on their plates today...to think that an adult with nothing else better to do but torment a kid...sigh...I'll just say I hope charges are brought against the perpetrator. I just wish she could've received the help she needed before she decided to take her own life.

We as parents must watch , monitor and ask our children questions. Who cares if they get upset?? THIS IS OUR JOB--TO PARENT.

If you have to utilize online monitoring devices due to not being able to get an answer of your kid-DO IT.

Sometimes we have to invade our children's privacy-it's ugly, it's unethical--but it can save our babies' lives! There are free online monitoring services-I use K9 Protection, to help me keep tabs on my kids online activities. Do they like it? Of course not, but I'm going to do all that I can as a parent to protect my kids. I am blessed that I've taught my kids thru words, actions and deeds, that it's ok to stand up for yourself-and SAY NO- and if that doesn't work, come to me or another family member and we'll find a resolution.

I wish Megan could've found her inner strength. Hopefully, her story will propel parents to become proactive, instead of reactive after their kids off themselves.

Parents: YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE, cyber bullying is real and it's dangerous. Protect your kids...if you don't who will????

Praying you've found peace at last, Megan.

-IVBB

Grandmother's Ultimate Sacrifice

In Ohio, a grandmother was driven to desperate tactics in order to prevent a physically abusive father away from her granddaughter.

view video

God bless the families.

UPDATE: DUHHH, TELL US SOMETHING WE DON'T KNOW! "HE WAS ONLY 14 YRS OLD!"

Ohio Student Gunman Had Mental Problems
credit: AOL news, AP


CLEVELAND (AP) - A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students.



Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended for fighting, warned classmates of an attack - but none took him seriously. "When he got suspended, he was like `I got something for you all,"' said student Frances Henderson, who said she often got into arguments with Coon. "I guess this is what he had."



Police believe Coon targeted the two teachers he shot Wednesday. He also shot two students while others hid in closets and bathrooms or ran out of SuccessTech Academy alternative school. Students gathered outside, many in tears, hugging one another and talking on cell phones.



Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.

Coon's troubles seemed to come to a tipping point this week when he was suspended for fighting outside with a classmate. Students said Monday's fight was over God - Coon told his classmates he didn't believe in God and instead worshipped rocker Marilyn Manson .



Armed with two revolvers Wednesday, Coon fired eight shots, Police Chief Michael McGrath said. Police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, but no suicide note, he said.



Math teacher David Kachadourian, who was treated at a hospital for a minor wound to the back of one shoulder, knew of no reason why Coon might target him. Coon was a student in his beginning algebra class. "I never felt personally threatened or personally at risk," Kachadourian said. "I had concerns about him, yes. He seemed like an angry young man. I did not fear for my own safety."



Coon had mental health problems, spent time in two juvenile facilities and threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility, according to juvenile court records obtained by The Plain Dealer newspaper. The Department of Children and Family Services was called to Coon's home in 2000 because he had burns on his arms and scratches on his forehead, the newspaper said.



When he was 12, Coon was charged in juvenile court with domestic violence. His mother, Lori, had called police and told them her son slapped her and called her a vulgar name. She had been trying to intervene in a fight between Coon and his twin sister, The Plain Dealer reported. He was also suspended from school last year for attempting to hurt a student, the newspaper said. "He used to cuss all the teachers out," said Henderson, 14.



Coon, who is white, stood out in the predominantly black school for dressing in a goth style, wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar and chains, she said. Henderson, who is black, she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings. "He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," said Doneisha LeVert, 14. "We didn't think nothing of it."



People at Coon's home late Wednesday declined to comment. All classes in the city school district were canceled Thursday, and school officials said counseling would be available for students at recreation centers throughout Cleveland.



Witnesses said the shooter moved through SuccessTech, a converted downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. He was wearing a Manson shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails, police said. Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization, said he did not know how Coon got into the building.



Blackwell said there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated. The first person shot, 14-year-old Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, student Rasheem Smith said. Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side," said Smith, 15. Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students. "They were screaming, and they were saying, `Oh my God! Oh my God!' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said. He realized he had been shot when he felt his arm burning. Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow.

The other student shot was taken to a children's hospital, which would not release the student's condition. Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old history teacher, was hospitalized in fair condition late Wednesday after about two hours of surgery. The hospital would not disclose the nature of the surgery. SuccessTech Academy, with about 240 students, is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship.

****

Tragic.

UPDATE::He Was Only 14 Years Old!!!

Teen shoots 4, kills self at Cleveland High School
(Scenes from SuccessTech Academy's shooting aftermath, below at right)

credit: crunk & disorderly

It was only after a crowd of screaming students ran past Darnell Rodgers in a stairway at his Cleveland, Ohio, high school Wednesday afternoon that he realized he had been shot."They were screaming, 'Oh my God! Oh my God,'" said Rodgers, a senior at SuccessTech Academy near downtown Cleveland.At around 1:15 p.m., a 14-year-old gunman, reportedly upset about a school suspension, was walking the halls firing with a gun in each hand. He shot 57-year-old as teacher David Kachadourian in the back in addition to shooting a 42-year-old teacher, officials said.Rodgers suddenly felt his arm "burning," he said, and realized he had been shot in the elbow.
When it was all over, five people had been shot including the gunman who, according to Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, killed himself.Students at SuccessTech Academy described the gunman as having an "odd" personality. Witnesses told WKYC the shooter had been suspended for fighting earlier this week.Edward Eckart, Commissioner of Cleveland EMS Cleveland said the 42-year-old was shot in the chest and is in critical condition at MetroHealth Medical Center.The 57-year-old, who MetroHealth identified to CNN as Kachadourian, is in stable condition. Rodgers was treated and released from the hospital. The 14-year-old male with a gunshot wound to his side was transported to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital where he is in stable condition, Eckart said.A 14-year-old female with a knee injury was also taken to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and is in stable condition.

(edited for content by Ivent)











Gunman dies, 5 injured at Ohio school
credit: AP, Yahoo! News (emphasis by Ivent)

CLEVELAND - A 14-year-old suspended student, dressed in black, opened fire in his downtown high school Wednesday, wounding four people as terrified schoolmates hid in closets and bathrooms and huddled under laboratory desks. He then killed himself.

A fellow student at SuccessTech Academy alternative school said Asa H. Coon, who was suspended for fighting two days earlier, had made threats in front of students and teachers last week.

"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," Doneisha LeVert said. "We didn't think nothing of it."
Coon was armed with two .38 caliber revolvers, and police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, officials said. Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.

Officials said two teachers and two students were shot, and that a 14-year-old girl fell and hurt her knee while running out of the school.
Witnesses said the shooter moved through the converted five-story downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. Officials said he was wearing a black Marilyn Manson concert shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails.

The first person shot, student Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, said student Rasheem Smith, 15.
Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side." Peek, 14, didn't know Coon had a gun, Smith said.

Antonio Deberry, 17, said he and his classmates hid under laboratory tables and watched the shooter move down the hallway. "I saw him walking past. He didn't see us, we saw him." The shooter swore and shot several times, Deberry said.

LeVert said she hid in a closet with two other students after she heard a "Code Blue" alert over the loudspeaker. She said she heard about 10 shots.
Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students.
"It took me a couple of minutes to realize that I was actually shot, when I felt my arm burning in the area, that's when I realized that I had got shot," Rodgers said.
"They were screaming, and they were saying, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said.
Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow.

Coon had been suspended since Monday for fighting near the school that day, said Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization. He did not know how Coon got into the building Wednesday.
Blackwell said that there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated.

Student Frances Henderson, 14, said she often got into arguments with Coon, who once told her, "I got something for you all." He was a "gothic" who usually wore a trench coat, black boots and a dog collar, she said.

Students stood outside the building, many in tears, hugging one another and on cell phones. Others shouted at reporters with TV cameras to leave them alone. Family members also stood outside, waiting for their children to be released.

Math teacher David Kachadourian, 57, was in good condition; Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old teacher, was in surgery, but his condition was unavailable. The other two injured teens were taken to a children's hospital, which would not release their names, ages or conditions.
Deberry's mother, Lakisha Deberry, said she was upset that metal detectors at the school were not always in use.
"You never know what's going on in someone's mind," said Deberry, adding that she was required to go through a metal detector and present an identification card whenever she wanted to drop off something at school for her children.

The shooting occurred across the street from the FBI office in downtown Cleveland, and students were being sent to the FBI site.
Classes at all schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will be canceled Thursday, said Eugene Sanders, chief executive officer of the district. Counseling will be available Thursday for students at recreation centers throughout the city, Sanders said.
SuccessTech Academy is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship. It is housed on several floors of the district's downtown Cleveland Lakeside Avenue administration building.
"It's a shining beacon for the Cleveland Metropolitan School system," said John Zitzner, founder and president of E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens. "It's orderly, it's disciplined, it's calm, it's focused."

The school has about 240 mainly black students with a small number of white and Hispanic students.

Coon was white and Henderson, the student who said she frequently argued with him, is black, but she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings.

The school, opened five years ago, ranks in the middle of the state's ratings for student performance. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.

********

I have told associates of mine's, 14yrs of age seems to be a critical year for youth. Whenever children have begun (began??) to lash out (as relayed to me by associates, friends and family) the onset usually manifests itself at 14. My son's friend hung himself at 14. My daughter's anger became pronounced at 14 etc. It is such a critical (do-or-die thinking), that it can have dire consequences with the most serious resulting in death.

For Asa to get to this point can only mean that he was unspeakable pain. Was it the fight that caused him to react in such a way??

Doubtable-I firmly believe the fight--was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Father, I just don't know what it is we can do for these hurting children. But you do. So Lord, I ask that you please...PLEASE...do something, in Jesus' name!

Ivent

God bless all those who are affected by this awful tragedy.

I guess it was that serious!

Man Kills Self at City Council Meeting
credits: AOL News


CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee (Oct. 5) - A business owner shot and killed himself during a city council meeting after members voted against his request to rezone his property, witnesses said.

Officer talking to witnesses in Clarksville Tenn., after a man killed himself during a council meeting.

Ronald " Bo " Ward , owner of Bo 's Barber Shop, had told the council his business would go under if he could not get his home rezoned as commercial. After the 5-7 vote Thursday night, Ward stood and walked toward the council.

"Ya'll have put me under ... I'm out of here," he said before shooting himself in the head with a small handgun.

Fire and police officials attending the meeting immediately ushered the audience of about 50 into the hallway, where several people were sobbing.

At least one police officer is always on duty during council meetings, officials said. However, visitors are not required to go through a metal detector or any other screening.

"When a gun gets whipped out like that, someone is going to get shot, but I didn't know who," Councilman Bill Summers said. "You could've been right next to him, and I don't think you could have stopped that."

Mayor Johnny Piper said Thursday's council meeting would be the last held in that room. Ward had said the rezoning would increase his property value, allowing him to secure a loan to offset debt he incurred when he expanded his shop.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2007-10-05 02:27:16

*************

Lord in this case, it seems that a desperate measure called for a desperate act. I pray that peace and healing descends upon those who are affected by this tragedy in Jesus' name. amen.