QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Yea. Whoop-de-do. That’s my opinion.”
Lance Colvin, a retired office worker in Kirkland, Wash., in response to an announcement that Social Security benefits will rise 1.5 percent in January Article, 2A
Man slays 5, himself in custody dispute
GREENWOOD, S.C. - A South Carolina man in a custody dispute with a onetime girlfriend broke into her parents’ home and fatally shot the woman, her parents and two children, a sheriff said. The man then killed himself.
Investigators found the bodies of six people ranging in age from 9 to 51 when they responded Tuesday to a call from a man who said he was thinking about hurting himself.
Greenwood County Sheriff Tony Davis identified the man who fired the shots as 27-year-old Bryan Sweatt. Davis said Sweatt felt that the woman he had dated wasn’t allowing him to see their infant child often enough. The infant was not among the dead.
Investigators believe Sweatt broke into the home and waited for the victims to return, Davis said, adding that the shootings looked like executions.
The victims were Richard Fields, 51; his wife, Melissa Fields, 49; their daughter Chandra Fields, 26; and two of the couple’s grandchildren, who lived with them, William Robinson, 9, and Tariq Robinson, 11.
Sweatt had a lengthy arrest record that dates back nearly a decade, according to state police records. Most of his charges were related to property crimes, such as burglary or forgery, although he was arrested once on aggravated assault charges.
Guardsman charged in armory shootings
MEMPHIS - A Tennessee National Guard recruiter was indicted Wednesday on charges that he tried to kill four of his superiors last week at an armory north of Memphis.
Sgt. 1st Class Amos Patton was indicted on nine counts related to a shooting at the Millington armory last Thursday.
Prosecutors say Patton, 42, opened fire with a 9mm pistol after he was told he would be relieved of duty and dismissed from active service.
Authorities had said Patton shot and wounded three superiors before he ran out of the armory and was subdued by a fellow guardsman. The indictment says Patton assaulted the fourth Guard member with a deadly weapon but doesn’t say whether that person was hurt.
A bail hearing scheduled for Wednesday was rescheduled for Nov. 13 because Patton wants to hire his own lawyer. He previously had been appointed a federal public defender.
Federal guards untrained, report says
WASHINGTON - Contract guards who protect federal buildings have received uneven and inconsistent training on responding to shootings like the one last month at the Washington Navy Yard, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.
The report from the Government Accountability Office says the Federal Protective Service, which safeguards the country’s federal buildings, lacks an effective system for making sure that its contract guards have received proper training and certification before being assigned to a post.
Though the agency requires its guards to be trained to respond when a gunman opens fire, officials from five companies said their guards had not gone through such training, the report states.
The report was summarized at a House subcommittee hearing on federal building security in the aftermath of the Sept. 16 deadly shooting at the Washington Navy Yard. A former Navy reservist, Aaron Alexis, killed 12 people inside the building where he worked before being fatally shot by police.
Official: Don’t release Sandy Hook tapes
HARTFORD, Conn. - The prosecutor leading the investigation into the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre asked a Connecticut court Wednesday to stay an order by the Freedom of Information Commission to release 911 tapes from last year’s shooting.
Danbury State’s Attorney Stephen Sedensky III filed the application Wednesday.
The commission last month ruled in favor of The Associated Press, which sought access to the recordings.
Sedensky said the stay would ensure his appeal of the commission’s decision is not rendered moot; records of child abuse are not unlawfully disclosed; victims and witnesses are not intimated; and statements of victims and witnesses are not released.
Twenty first-graders and six educators were killed in the Dec. 14 shooting.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 10/31/2013