The D.C. sniper attacks were a series of coordinated shootings that occurred during three weeks in October 2002 throughout the Washington metropolitan area, consisting of the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, and preliminary shootings, that consisted of murders and robberies in several states, and lasted for six months starting in February 2002. Seven people were killed, and seven others were injured in the preliminary shootings, and ten people were killed and three others were critically wounded in the October shootings. In total, the snipers killed 17 people and wounded 10 others in a 10-month span.
John Allen Muhammad was an American convicted spree killer who, along with his partner and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, carried out the D.C. sniper attacks of October 2002, killing seventeen people. Muhammad and Malvo were arrested in connection with the attacks on October 24, 2002, following tips from alert citizens.
A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a combat situation between armed parties using guns. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to describe combat situations primarily using firearms.
An encounter killing, often simply called an encounter, is an extrajudicial killing by police or the armed forces in South Asia, supposedly in self-defence when they encounter suspected gangsters or terrorists. The officers typically described the incidents as a shootout situation, often allegedly starting when a criminal grabs for the gun of a police officer. The term encounter came into widespread use for such incidents in the late 20th century.
On August 10, 1999, at around 10:50 a.m. PT, American white supremacist Buford O. Furrow Jr. walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills and opened fire with an Uzi sub machine gun, firing 70 bullets into the complex. The gunfire wounded five people: three children, a teenage counselor, and an office worker. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state, and finally surrendered to authorities.
Russel Timoshenko was a 23-year-old New York Police Department (NYPD) police officer who was shot on July 9, 2007, and died five days later, after pulling over a stolen BMW automobile in New York City's Crown Heights, Brooklyn, neighborhood. After a four-day manhunt that stretched across three states, all three suspects Dexter Bostic, Robert Ellis and Lee Woods were eventually apprehended and convicted—two of murder, and the third for weapons possession. At his widely attended funeral, Timoshenko was posthumously promoted to the rank of Detective. The case garnered national media attention because the weapons used were all illegally obtained handguns. This sparked widespread debate over gun control laws in New York City, and over the process by which firearms are traced by police departments.
The Farmville murders occurred in Farmville, Virginia, in September 2009 – the quadruple bludgeoning homicide of Mark Niederbrock, Debra S. Kelley, their daughter Emma Niederbrock and friend Melanie Wells.
Barrio Azteca, or Los Aztecas, is a Mexican-American street and prison gang originally based in El Paso, Texas, USA and Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. The gang was formed in the Coffield Unit, located near Tennessee Colony, Texas by Jose "Raulio" Rivera, a prisoner from El Paso, in the early 1980s. It expanded into a transnational criminal organization that traded mainly across the US-Mexico border. Currently one of the most violent gangs in the United States, they are said to have over 3,000 members across the country in locations such as New Mexico, Texas, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania as well as at least 5,000 members in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
On July 7, 2011, a gunman killed seven people and wounded two others in a spree killing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The deaths took place in two homes, with the two non-fatal gunshot injuries taking place on the road. The suspected gunman, Rodrick Shonte Dantzler, later killed himself after a police chase which left his vehicle disabled in a highway woodline and after he then took hostages in a nearby house for several hours. Those killed included Dantzler's estranged wife, their daughter, his former girlfriend, and members of the other victims' families. One of the non-fatal victims was also acquainted with Dantzler.
On July 9, 2014, a mass shooting occurred in a home located in northern Harris County, Texas, near the Spring census-designated place, a suburban area of the Greater Houston area, leaving six family members dead, four children, and a lone survivor. Ronald Lee Haskell, 34, was apprehended after a standoff that lasted several hours. Haskell was related to the victims via his ex-wife.
On August 8, 2015, a mass shooting occurred inside a home in northern Harris County, Texas, near Houston. David Ray Conley III, 48, broke into his former home and held hostage Valerie and Dwayne Jackson, Sr., along with six children, including his own 13-year-old son. Over the course of nine hours, he shot and killed the entire family. He then engaged in a shootout with responding police before surrendering.
On the night of February 20, 2016, a spree shooting took place at an apartment complex, a Kia car dealership, and outside a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Six people were killed, and two others were injured.
On January 23, 2019, at around 12:30 pm, five women – four employees and a customer – were shot and killed at the SunTrust Bank in Sebring, Florida. After being named a suspect, 21-year-old Zephen Xaver turned himself in to police. He initially pleaded not guilty to five murders. On March 14, 2023, he pleaded guilty in the shooting.
Keen Mountain Correctional Center is a level 4, maximum security correctional facility in Oakwood, Virginia. It opened in 1990 and houses up to 1200 adult male offenders.
On February 9, 2021, a mass shooting and bombing occurred at a medical clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota, United States. Just before 11:00 a.m. CST, Gregory Paul Ulrich, a 67-year-old man, shot five people at Allina Health's Buffalo Crossroads facility. One victim, Lindsay Overbay, died, and three others were critically injured from gunshot wounds. All of the victims were medical clinic staff. During the attack, Ulrich discharged three improvised explosive devices, one of which failed to detonate. He surrendered to police who were dispatched to the clinic, and he was taken into custody. He admitted to authorities that he fired on people inside the clinic and set off bombs.
On October 13, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in the Hedingham neighborhood of Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Five people were killed, and two others were injured. The accused, a male juvenile named Austin Thompson, was detained after being cornered by police at a nearby residence and was in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the head sustained during the incident. Thompson survived his head injury and has begun to receive physical rehabilitation. He was transferred from a hospital to the medical unit of a juvenile correctional facility.
On November 22, 2022, Andre Marcus Bing killed six co-workers and injured four others before killing himself, in retaliation for perceived workplace harassment at the Walmart Supercenter where he worked as a night-supervisor in Chesapeake, Virginia, United States. Bing's suicide note cited concern he was being "led by Satan" and asking forgiveness - while also mentioning cancer treatments and loneliness.
