Names of U.S. theater shooting victims released
The names of the 12 people killed in Friday’s deadly shooting in a theater in Aurora, Colorado, were released Saturday.
The dead included a six-year-old girl, two members of the U.S. military, a woman who escaped a mall shooting in Toronto last month, a man celebrating his 27th birthday, and two men who sacrificed their lives to save the women they were with. All but one were under the age of 32, and eight were in their 20s.
Family members waited almost a full day after the shooting to get confirmation that their loved ones were killed.
A statement released by Colorado’s Arapahoe County said that autopsies were done on all of the victims and all deaths were caused by gunshot wounds.
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, was described “vibrant and excitable.” The blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl was bragging four days ago about learning how to swim, said her great-aunt Annie Dalton.
“She loved to dress up and read, and was doing well at school. She was beautiful and innocent,” Dalton said about her great niece, who attended an elementary school in Denver.
Veronica’s mother, Ashley Moser, is in critical condition with gunshot wounds to her neck and abdomen. Sources say she comes in and out of consciousness, and asks for her daughter when she is lucid. No one has yet told her that Veronica is dead.
Jesse E. Childress, 29, and John Thomas Larimer, 27, were U.S military servicemen, respectively serving in the Air Force and Navy. Larimer had worked as a cryptology technician at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora since October 2011.
Jonathan T. Blunk, 26, and Matthew R. McQuinn, 27, both died trying to protect their girlfriends. Witnesses said McQuinn jumped in front of longtime girlfriend Samantha Yowler, who was hit in the knee but is expected to fully recover. Blunk pushed his girlfriend under a seat and took a bullet meant for her.
Alex M. Sullivan died on his 27th birthday, and had just said in an online message that “Oh man one hour till the movie and it’s going to be the best BIRTHDAY ever.”
Sullivan, a well-loved bartender, was a comic book nerd and New York Mets fan. Prior to the announcement of his death, his father walked through the parking lot of the theater with a picture of his son, begging police to help find him.
In a sad, ironic twist, 24-year-old Jessica Ghawi, an aspiring sports reporter and blogger, had narrowly avoided another shooting incident in Toronto just last month, which left one person dead and seven injured.
On her blog, she wrote of the Toronto incident: “I was shown how fragile life was on Saturday. I saw the terror on bystanders’ faces. I saw the victims of a senseless crime. I saw lives change. I was reminded that we don’t know when or where our time on Earth will end. When or where we will breathe our last breath.”
Other victims included 51-year-old Gordon W. Cowdon, a father of four; 18-year-old Alexander J. Boik, an incoming freshman student at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design; and Alexander C. Teves, 24, a recent graduate of University of Denver with a master’s degree in counseling psychology.
Two other women died that night, namely Micayla C. Medek, 23, a general studies major at the Community College of Aurora, and Rebecca Ann Wingo, 32, a customer relations representative at a mobile medical imaging company.
Aurora Chief of Police Dan Oates told a press conference that the city will hold a vigil for victims of the attack on Sunday night.
On Saturday, the White House said President Barack Obama will fly to Colorado on Sunday to offer condolences to the victims of what he called a “heinous crime.”
Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney also scaled back his campaign schedule in the wake of the massacre, calling it the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.
Government Candidate Wins Presidential Elections in India
India’s former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee was elected as the country’s next president on Sunday, the independent Election Commission announced.
The 77-year-old veteran politician, nominated by the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance for the position, defeated his main challenger and former parliament speaker P.A. Sangma, supported by the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party- led National Democratic Alliance, by a huge margin, garnering votes from the Members of Parliament as well as legislators from across the states.
Mukherjee has won more than 558,000 votes against 240,000 votes by his rival presidential candidate P.A. Sangma according to accounts of vote as of 16:30 local time, said local TV channel Times Now.
Mukherjee, whose political career spanned over four decades, will be sworn in Wednesday by the Chief Justice of India, and he will be succeeding incumbent Pratibha Patil whose five-year tenure ends on July 25.
A holder of two master’s degrees as well as a law degree, Mukherjee held various senior positions in the country’s ruling Congress party and held a number of key portfolios like defense and foreign in his career.
The native of the eastern state of West Bengal was considered as the party’s main troubleshooter till he resigned from the ministry and the party to contest the presidential poll.
Russian officials detained for negligence in flood-hit region
Russia has detained three officials for negligence in their handling of a flood incident that has killed 172 people in the south, the country’s federal investigating body said Sunday.
“Head of Krymsk district Vasily Krutko, Major of Krymsk Vladimir Ulanovsky and Viktor Zhdanov, acting head of the department on prevention of emergency situations of the Krymsk region, have been detained in relation to an investigation of a criminal case,” Spokesman for the Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told reporters.
All the detained officials received warnings of downpours and flooding on July 5 and July 6, but failed to inform and evacuate local residents in time, Markin said.
Their negligence had led to grave consequences: the death of 153 people living in Krymsk, a district of the flood-stricken Krasnodar territory, he said.
Irina Ryabchenko, mayor of Nizhnebakansk town in Krymsk, was also listed as a suspect but he was not detained, Markin said, adding that the investigation over the devastating flood was still underway.
Krasnodar territory has been hit since July 5 by the worst downpours and flooding in decades, with three districts — Krymsk, Gelendzhik and Novorossiisk — taking the brunt of the natural disaster. Some 35,000 people have been affected.
The Russian government has pledged 3.8 billion rubles (115.88 million U.S. dollars) to compensate the affected families and finance the reconstruction.
Via PL