Date: 10/27/2008 1:50 PM
WESTFIELD, Mass. (AP) _ An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.
The boy lost control of the weapon while firing it Sunday at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club, police Lt. Lawrence Vallierpratte said.
Police said the boy, Christopher Bizilj (Bah-SEAL) of Ashford, Conn., was with a certified instructor and called the death a “self-inflicted accidental shooting.”
“The weapon was loaded and ready to fire,” police Lt. Hipolito Nunez said. “The 8-year-old victim had the Uzi and as he was firing the weapon, the front end of the weapon went up with the backfire and he ended up receiving a round in his head.”
Christopher died at Baystate Medical Center.
Police said the boy’s father, Charles Bizilj, attended the event with his son. The father is the medical director of emergency medicine at Johnson Memorial Hospital, in Stafford Springs, Conn.
Francis Mitchell, a longtime member and trustee of the club, said he saw the boy’s father supporting his son from behind when the accident happened.
“My reaction is shock,” said Mitchell, who lives down the street from the club. “In the last five years, there has never been a problem or a bad accident. I’ve been sick all night.”
Although the death appears to be an accident, police and the Hampden district attorney’s office were investigating, officials said.
It is legal for children to fire a weapon if they have permission from a parent or legal guardian and are supervised by a properly certified and licensed instructor, Lt. Hipolito Nunez said.
Those conditions were met in this case, he said. He declined to release the instructor’s name.
The event, run in conjunction with C.O.P Firearms and Training, said in an ad that people are allowed to fire weapons at vehicles, pumpkins and other targets at the event.
The club said it would offer machine gun demonstrations and rentals and free handgun lessons.
“It’s all legal & fun — No permits or licenses required!!!!” reads the ad, posted on the club’s Web site.
Officials with the firearms group could not be reached for comment. Messages left on answering machines for the club and the C.O.P. group were not returned Monday.
The sportsman’s club was founded in 1949 and describes itself on its Web site as promoting “the interest of legal sport with rod, gun, and bow and arrow, both directly and through training.”
It has eight firing ranges as well as archery and fishing facilities located on 375 acres in Westfield, about 100 miles west of Boston.
___
On the Web:
Westfield Club: http://www.westfieldsportsman.com
COP Firearms: http://www.copfirearms.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Suicide is a major risk factor for brain injured individuals
http://subtlebraininjury.blogspot.com/2008/10/crisis-calls-increase.html
Earlier this week we posted an AP news story about the increase in suicides with the downturn in Wallstreet and the economy. I am old enough to remember my parents’ stories about the suicides on Wallstreet after the 1929 crash, so was certainly not surprised about this development. Suicide prevention is one of the areas of advocacy that does not get enough attention. Suicide is a major risk factor for brain injured individuals, as depression and organic brain injury create a dangerous synergism.
There are surprisingly inadequate suicide resources on the web. I have previously linked some of those, but will endeavor in the coming days to supplement those we have discussed before. However, the most significant thing that can be done to prevent actual suicides is to insure that no one who is potentially despondent, has access to a handgun.
Included is a chart of the statistical analysis of suicide deaths in the US. Many have seen the movie Bowling for Columbine, which is Michael Moore’s treatment of gun control. While I agree with Moore, what Moore doesn’t say in this movie is that two-thirds of the gunshot deaths in the United States are suicides.
Look at the 5th column on the chart below – Case Fatality Rate. The success rate on all suicide attempts (including guns) is only 8.66%; the rate for those who attempt it with a gun – 85%. Even those who jump succeed only 31% of the time. The only other method that has more than a 50% success rate is those who attempt suicide through suffocation.
THE REAL REASON FOR GUN CONTROL? Of the 16,899 who killed themselves with guns, 16,200 would still be alive. I represent depressed people. The impulse to kill themselves is something they get past. But not when the impulse is combined with a gun.
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Earlier this week we posted an AP news story about the increase in suicides with the downturn in Wallstreet and the economy. I am old enough to remember my parents’ stories about the suicides on Wallstreet after the 1929 crash, so was certainly not surprised about this development. Suicide prevention is one of the areas of advocacy that does not get enough attention. Suicide is a major risk factor for brain injured individuals, as depression and organic brain injury create a dangerous synergism.
There are surprisingly inadequate suicide resources on the web. I have previously linked some of those, but will endeavor in the coming days to supplement those we have discussed before. However, the most significant thing that can be done to prevent actual suicides is to insure that no one who is potentially despondent, has access to a handgun.
Included is a chart of the statistical analysis of suicide deaths in the US. Many have seen the movie Bowling for Columbine, which is Michael Moore’s treatment of gun control. While I agree with Moore, what Moore doesn’t say in this movie is that two-thirds of the gunshot deaths in the United States are suicides.
Look at the 5th column on the chart below – Case Fatality Rate. The success rate on all suicide attempts (including guns) is only 8.66%; the rate for those who attempt it with a gun – 85%. Even those who jump succeed only 31% of the time. The only other method that has more than a 50% success rate is those who attempt suicide through suffocation.
THE REAL REASON FOR GUN CONTROL? Of the 16,899 who killed themselves with guns, 16,200 would still be alive. I represent depressed people. The impulse to kill themselves is something they get past. But not when the impulse is combined with a gun.
www.tbilaw.com
www.subtlebraininjury.com
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Iraqi puppy decked out in red, white and blue arrives in US
9:36 PM EDT, October 20, 2008
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER | Associated Press Writer
CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — A black puppy decked out in a red, white and blue bandanna jumped out of his crate and wagged his tail at the airport Monday, three flights and two days after leaving Iraq en route to his new home with a U.S. soldier.
Army Spc. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis says she couldn’t have made it through her 13-month deployment without Ratchet, who she and another soldier rescued from a burning pile of trash in May. Ratchet, wearing a dog-bone-shaped collar with its name, will spend two nights in a kennel before flying to Minneapolis, where Beberg’s parents will pick him up. Beberg is scheduled to return home next month.
“I’m very excited that Ratchet will be waiting for me when I get home from Iraq! Words can’t describe it,” Beberg said in an e-mail to friends and family. “I hope that Ratchet’s story will inspire people to continue the efforts to bring more service members’ animals home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The dog was rescued by Baghdad Pups, run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International. The group, which has now brought 63 animals to the U.S., says the effort both saves dogs and cats and helps soldiers who benefit from the bond with the animals.
The military bars troops from caring for pets on duty or taking them home, citing reasons such as health issues and difficulties in caring for the animals. The U.S. military has said the dog was free to leave but American troops could not be responsible for its transportation.
Baghdad Pups coordinator Terri Crisp, who brought the puppy back from Iraq, said animals adopted by soldiers help them get through difficult times.
“I hope Ratchet and his story will lead to some dialogue with the military,” Crisp said as she stroked the puppy.
Ratchet flew on a charter flight to Kuwait, then flew commercial from Kuwait to Amsterdam and on to Washington. Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines picked up the cost of the last two legs.
Ratchet frolicked on a grassy patch outside the airport before heading off to Clocktower Animal Hospital in Herndon, Va., for a checkup and some shots.
“Your tail’s wagging!” said Dr. Chris Carskaddan, the veterinarian, as he greeted the dog. “So cute.”
Ratchet didn’t bark at all, but let out a whimper during the shots. Afterward, Carskaddan declared the dog “extremely healthy.”
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.
Baghdad Pups site: http://www.baghdadpups.com
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER | Associated Press Writer
CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — A black puppy decked out in a red, white and blue bandanna jumped out of his crate and wagged his tail at the airport Monday, three flights and two days after leaving Iraq en route to his new home with a U.S. soldier.
Army Spc. Gwen Beberg of Minneapolis says she couldn’t have made it through her 13-month deployment without Ratchet, who she and another soldier rescued from a burning pile of trash in May. Ratchet, wearing a dog-bone-shaped collar with its name, will spend two nights in a kennel before flying to Minneapolis, where Beberg’s parents will pick him up. Beberg is scheduled to return home next month.
“I’m very excited that Ratchet will be waiting for me when I get home from Iraq! Words can’t describe it,” Beberg said in an e-mail to friends and family. “I hope that Ratchet’s story will inspire people to continue the efforts to bring more service members’ animals home from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The dog was rescued by Baghdad Pups, run by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International. The group, which has now brought 63 animals to the U.S., says the effort both saves dogs and cats and helps soldiers who benefit from the bond with the animals.
The military bars troops from caring for pets on duty or taking them home, citing reasons such as health issues and difficulties in caring for the animals. The U.S. military has said the dog was free to leave but American troops could not be responsible for its transportation.
Baghdad Pups coordinator Terri Crisp, who brought the puppy back from Iraq, said animals adopted by soldiers help them get through difficult times.
“I hope Ratchet and his story will lead to some dialogue with the military,” Crisp said as she stroked the puppy.
Ratchet flew on a charter flight to Kuwait, then flew commercial from Kuwait to Amsterdam and on to Washington. Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines picked up the cost of the last two legs.
Ratchet frolicked on a grassy patch outside the airport before heading off to Clocktower Animal Hospital in Herndon, Va., for a checkup and some shots.
“Your tail’s wagging!” said Dr. Chris Carskaddan, the veterinarian, as he greeted the dog. “So cute.”
Ratchet didn’t bark at all, but let out a whimper during the shots. Afterward, Carskaddan declared the dog “extremely healthy.”
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.
Baghdad Pups site: http://www.baghdadpups.com
Crisis Calls Increase
Date: 10/21/2008 3:01 AM
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Calls to the Georgia Crisis and Access line from people with concerns about financial difficulties increased 64 percent during July to September over the same period in 2006. Mandy Mercer’s company, Behavioral Health Link, operates the hot line. She said 930 callers used words such as mortgage foreclosure, bank and debt when describing their problems to counselors.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Calls to the Georgia Crisis and Access line from people with concerns about financial difficulties increased 64 percent during July to September over the same period in 2006. Mandy Mercer’s company, Behavioral Health Link, operates the hot line. She said 930 callers used words such as mortgage foreclosure, bank and debt when describing their problems to counselors.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Suspect dead, 4 hurt in Ga. law office explosion
Date: 10/17/2008 11:05 PM
By KATE BRUMBACK and GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ A bitter family dispute over property in north Georgia apparently erupted Friday when a 78-year-old man threw an explosive into a law firm that represented his son, causing a blast that killed the father and injured four people in the office.
The explosion blew out windows of the two-story, colonial-style house where attorneys worked, and some in the small blue-collar town of 30,000 felt vibrations from more than a block away.
Authorities identified the bomber as Lloyd Cantrell, a man known around town for wearing bib overalls and carrying a small Chihuahua. Over the years, Cantrell amassed several parcels of land in the area, and gave some of the property to his son.
His son had grown fearful of his father, though, and filed a lawsuit seeking to keep his dad off the property the son had been given, claiming the elder man stole tools, kicked down a door and was suicidal.
Authorities said it was too early to talk about a motive in the case, but the dispute between the father and son was well-documented in court records.
“Essentially, what we’ve got here is not an act of terrorism,” said Scott Sweetow, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It is a depraved individual, by all accounts, who decided to launch what ended up being a suicide attack.”
Police were called Friday morning to a disturbance at the firm of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn. An officer saw a man get out of a sport utility vehicle and run behind the building. The explosion followed.
Authorities think Cantrell threw the explosive through a front window or door. As of late Friday, they hadn’t identified the nature of the explosive.
Inside the SUV, authorities found cylinders of natural gas, propane gas and gasoline, which they carefully removed before towing the vehicle late Friday.
Two of the injured were treated at a hospital and released, and one was admitted. A fourth, attorney Jim Phillips, was taken to a burn center in Augusta. Hospital spokeswoman Anne Cordeiro said he was in critical condition.
A block and a half from the blast site, bank executive Wayne Russell said he heard and felt the explosion.
“It sounded like a transformer that’s blown,” said Russell, 53, executive vice president of Omni National Bank. “We could actually feel a sort of rocking motion from the explosion.”
The firm housed the office for Samuel L. Sanders, who represented Lloyd Cantrell’s son in a bitter legal dispute that dated back at least two years. A police spokesman said he didn’t know whether Sanders was in the office at the time of the explosion.
Lloyd Cantrell’s attorney, David Blackburn, said Cantrell’s son, Bruce, filed a lawsuit seeking to block his father from the land, in part claiming that his dad carried a pistol with him and threatened to kill himself.
“He has repeatedly said that ‘The only thing that would keep me off the property is to be put in jail,'” according to a complaint filed by Bruce Cantrell’s attorney in 2006. Several attempts to reach Bruce Cantrell Friday were unsuccessful.
The case was set to go trial in August, but it was delayed.
“I know he got frustrated because it took so long,” Blackburn said of his client. He described the family as “abysmally dysfunctional.”
“He was a pretty nice old man,” Blackburn said of the father. “He was a little cantankerous at times, and I think he was really frustrated.”
Four miles from the explosion, investigators streamed in and out of the suspect’s house, which sits on a large wooded lot with a rusting tractor in front. The white house resembles a large garage with a small living area and a corrugated tin roof. A riding lawn mower and an old recreational vehicle were in the back.
Attorney Robert Smalley, a lawyer at the firm, left 15 to 20 minutes before the blast but turned back when he received phone calls about it.
“We’ll take today with our families and try to regroup,” he said “Our thoughts right now are with the injured and their families.”
Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site.
Students at an elementary school across the street were evacuated to a nearby church.
___
Bluestein reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Walter Putnam and Dorie Turner in Atlanta also contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By KATE BRUMBACK and GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ A bitter family dispute over property in north Georgia apparently erupted Friday when a 78-year-old man threw an explosive into a law firm that represented his son, causing a blast that killed the father and injured four people in the office.
The explosion blew out windows of the two-story, colonial-style house where attorneys worked, and some in the small blue-collar town of 30,000 felt vibrations from more than a block away.
Authorities identified the bomber as Lloyd Cantrell, a man known around town for wearing bib overalls and carrying a small Chihuahua. Over the years, Cantrell amassed several parcels of land in the area, and gave some of the property to his son.
His son had grown fearful of his father, though, and filed a lawsuit seeking to keep his dad off the property the son had been given, claiming the elder man stole tools, kicked down a door and was suicidal.
Authorities said it was too early to talk about a motive in the case, but the dispute between the father and son was well-documented in court records.
“Essentially, what we’ve got here is not an act of terrorism,” said Scott Sweetow, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It is a depraved individual, by all accounts, who decided to launch what ended up being a suicide attack.”
Police were called Friday morning to a disturbance at the firm of McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn. An officer saw a man get out of a sport utility vehicle and run behind the building. The explosion followed.
Authorities think Cantrell threw the explosive through a front window or door. As of late Friday, they hadn’t identified the nature of the explosive.
Inside the SUV, authorities found cylinders of natural gas, propane gas and gasoline, which they carefully removed before towing the vehicle late Friday.
Two of the injured were treated at a hospital and released, and one was admitted. A fourth, attorney Jim Phillips, was taken to a burn center in Augusta. Hospital spokeswoman Anne Cordeiro said he was in critical condition.
A block and a half from the blast site, bank executive Wayne Russell said he heard and felt the explosion.
“It sounded like a transformer that’s blown,” said Russell, 53, executive vice president of Omni National Bank. “We could actually feel a sort of rocking motion from the explosion.”
The firm housed the office for Samuel L. Sanders, who represented Lloyd Cantrell’s son in a bitter legal dispute that dated back at least two years. A police spokesman said he didn’t know whether Sanders was in the office at the time of the explosion.
Lloyd Cantrell’s attorney, David Blackburn, said Cantrell’s son, Bruce, filed a lawsuit seeking to block his father from the land, in part claiming that his dad carried a pistol with him and threatened to kill himself.
“He has repeatedly said that ‘The only thing that would keep me off the property is to be put in jail,'” according to a complaint filed by Bruce Cantrell’s attorney in 2006. Several attempts to reach Bruce Cantrell Friday were unsuccessful.
The case was set to go trial in August, but it was delayed.
“I know he got frustrated because it took so long,” Blackburn said of his client. He described the family as “abysmally dysfunctional.”
“He was a pretty nice old man,” Blackburn said of the father. “He was a little cantankerous at times, and I think he was really frustrated.”
Four miles from the explosion, investigators streamed in and out of the suspect’s house, which sits on a large wooded lot with a rusting tractor in front. The white house resembles a large garage with a small living area and a corrugated tin roof. A riding lawn mower and an old recreational vehicle were in the back.
Attorney Robert Smalley, a lawyer at the firm, left 15 to 20 minutes before the blast but turned back when he received phone calls about it.
“We’ll take today with our families and try to regroup,” he said “Our thoughts right now are with the injured and their families.”
Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site.
Students at an elementary school across the street were evacuated to a nearby church.
___
Bluestein reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Walter Putnam and Dorie Turner in Atlanta also contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Imprisoned vets tell their war stories for history
Date: 10/18/2008 12:01 AM
By DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press Writer
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) _ As U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam in early 1974, Seaman Apprentice Frederic D. Jones was fighting his own battles.
The cocky Baltimore teenager spent nearly three months AWOL in the Philippines. There, he said, he played cat-and-mouse with shore patrol while fending off a murderous drug dealer, romancing the sister of a militia leader and robbing other servicemen to feed his heroin habit.
Eventually caught, Jones negotiated an honorable discharge but couldn’t stay clean. An armed robbery spree in 1995 got him a 45-year sentence in the Maryland Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.
While Jones, now 52, is locked away from society, his war story has been preserved for posterity. He is among the first incarcerated veterans to tell his military service tale to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
Video recordings of more than 30 inmates at the medium-security prison are archived at the library’s American Folklife Center, along with those of nearly 60,000 other veterans. Just one other prison, the Fairton Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J., has collected veterans’ stories, said Bob Patrick, director of the Veterans History Project.
Congress created the oral history program in 2000 to document the personal wartime experiences of American service members. The library doesn’t try to verify their stories, but The Associated Press confirmed the service records of the inmates mentioned in this report.
Patrick said that by recognizing their roles in history, the project dignifies the service of veterans who take part. Jones was so proud of his videotape that he had a copy sent to his elderly mother.
“She was so overjoyed and surprised,” he said.
Since any veteran, no matter how decorated or disgraced, can contribute to the archive, Jones’ story was as welcome as that of any admiral. And it’s hard to imagine one more colorful.
On his nearly 90-minute recording, Jones recounts his adventures as a “young, wild, impulsive,” 18-year-old in and around the Subic Bay Naval Base. There, he said, a female gang called the Black Stockings helped him steal cash and watches from drunken sailors and aided him in avoiding a drug dealer he had wronged.
“I ended up getting a contract on my life,” Jones says. “I felt like I had never left home.”
Jones, who is black, said he enlisted in the Navy seeking structure and style — he liked the bell-bottomed uniforms — but he quickly grew disenchanted by the racism and drug use he found.
“I’d had my own preconceived ideas what the military was — I mean straight-up, strict discipline,” Jones says on the video, made a year ago. “The drugs, the gang mentality — it was all right there in the military. It was a big letdown.”
In a June interview with the AP, Jones said he doesn’t blame the military for his mistakes but has found in prison the sort of discipline he had expected from the Navy. Behind bars, he and 58-year-old John E. Barba, who is serving a life sentence for robbing and murdering a methamphetamine maker, have become co-chairmen of the prison’s veterans history committee.
Guided by materials from the Library of Congress, they have become such skilled interviewers since last fall that they and prison librarian Mary Stevanus, who spearheaded the history project, hope to produce a how-to booklet or video for other veterans groups, in or out of prison.
“What you’re looking for is the meat of the stuff,” said Barba, who served domestically in the Navy from 1970 to 1974. Working together, he and Jones conduct informal “pre-interviews” with their subjects, making notes of compelling material “so when they’re giving their interview, we can dive in,” Barba said.
They extracted a harrowing account from Ronald L. McClary, 62, of his experience under fire as a fresh-faced Marine in Vietnam. On his video, the burly inmate, seated before a large U.S. flag, recalls his daily “search-and-destroy” missions.
“Every day, you would look at one of your buddies and wonder who wasn’t going home today or who was going to get killed today. Everybody knew it was going to be somebody,” said McClary, who is serving 12 years for the second-degree murder of his wife in Baltimore 2005.
He recounted a firefight in which two buddies were killed.
“Three rounds went off. The first round hit Amos in the head. Amos fell. When Amos fell, Cope looked around and looked down at Amos. The second round hit Cope in the head. And I seen it. I told you, three rounds went off. Cope was to my left. Amos was to my left, and then there was me. You cannot tell me today the third round wasn’t meant for me. But I was down. I was eating dirt.”
Ordered by his lieutenant to get up and charge the enemy, McClary fired two shots before his gun jammed. “I had to get back down,” he says on the video. “I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”
Jones said he feels privileged hearing such stories.
“These guys have kept this stuff to themselves for 40 years,” he said. “You’ll see one guy that actually breaks down and cries. I mean, these are hardened criminals and he breaks down and cries on his video.”
About 226,000 of the national’s 25.1 million veterans were in prison or jail in 1998, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics’ most recent report on the subject.
Matt Davison, chairman of an incarcerated veterans project for New York-based VietNow National, a veterans advocacy group, said most inmate vets he’s met are proud of having served — and many feel remorse for having done something dishonorable.
Barba said most of the inmates he has interviewed for the history project express gratitude that they were able to serve.
In one video, white-haired World War II vet Lee D. Gerhold, doing 50 years for arranging an ex-wife’s murder, grips his cane and says, “I’m thankful to the country for accepting me.”
___
On the Net:
Veterans History Project: http://www.loc.gov/vets
VietNow National: http://www.vietnow.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By DAVID DISHNEAU
Associated Press Writer
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) _ As U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam in early 1974, Seaman Apprentice Frederic D. Jones was fighting his own battles.
The cocky Baltimore teenager spent nearly three months AWOL in the Philippines. There, he said, he played cat-and-mouse with shore patrol while fending off a murderous drug dealer, romancing the sister of a militia leader and robbing other servicemen to feed his heroin habit.
Eventually caught, Jones negotiated an honorable discharge but couldn’t stay clean. An armed robbery spree in 1995 got him a 45-year sentence in the Maryland Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.
While Jones, now 52, is locked away from society, his war story has been preserved for posterity. He is among the first incarcerated veterans to tell his military service tale to the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
Video recordings of more than 30 inmates at the medium-security prison are archived at the library’s American Folklife Center, along with those of nearly 60,000 other veterans. Just one other prison, the Fairton Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J., has collected veterans’ stories, said Bob Patrick, director of the Veterans History Project.
Congress created the oral history program in 2000 to document the personal wartime experiences of American service members. The library doesn’t try to verify their stories, but The Associated Press confirmed the service records of the inmates mentioned in this report.
Patrick said that by recognizing their roles in history, the project dignifies the service of veterans who take part. Jones was so proud of his videotape that he had a copy sent to his elderly mother.
“She was so overjoyed and surprised,” he said.
Since any veteran, no matter how decorated or disgraced, can contribute to the archive, Jones’ story was as welcome as that of any admiral. And it’s hard to imagine one more colorful.
On his nearly 90-minute recording, Jones recounts his adventures as a “young, wild, impulsive,” 18-year-old in and around the Subic Bay Naval Base. There, he said, a female gang called the Black Stockings helped him steal cash and watches from drunken sailors and aided him in avoiding a drug dealer he had wronged.
“I ended up getting a contract on my life,” Jones says. “I felt like I had never left home.”
Jones, who is black, said he enlisted in the Navy seeking structure and style — he liked the bell-bottomed uniforms — but he quickly grew disenchanted by the racism and drug use he found.
“I’d had my own preconceived ideas what the military was — I mean straight-up, strict discipline,” Jones says on the video, made a year ago. “The drugs, the gang mentality — it was all right there in the military. It was a big letdown.”
In a June interview with the AP, Jones said he doesn’t blame the military for his mistakes but has found in prison the sort of discipline he had expected from the Navy. Behind bars, he and 58-year-old John E. Barba, who is serving a life sentence for robbing and murdering a methamphetamine maker, have become co-chairmen of the prison’s veterans history committee.
Guided by materials from the Library of Congress, they have become such skilled interviewers since last fall that they and prison librarian Mary Stevanus, who spearheaded the history project, hope to produce a how-to booklet or video for other veterans groups, in or out of prison.
“What you’re looking for is the meat of the stuff,” said Barba, who served domestically in the Navy from 1970 to 1974. Working together, he and Jones conduct informal “pre-interviews” with their subjects, making notes of compelling material “so when they’re giving their interview, we can dive in,” Barba said.
They extracted a harrowing account from Ronald L. McClary, 62, of his experience under fire as a fresh-faced Marine in Vietnam. On his video, the burly inmate, seated before a large U.S. flag, recalls his daily “search-and-destroy” missions.
“Every day, you would look at one of your buddies and wonder who wasn’t going home today or who was going to get killed today. Everybody knew it was going to be somebody,” said McClary, who is serving 12 years for the second-degree murder of his wife in Baltimore 2005.
He recounted a firefight in which two buddies were killed.
“Three rounds went off. The first round hit Amos in the head. Amos fell. When Amos fell, Cope looked around and looked down at Amos. The second round hit Cope in the head. And I seen it. I told you, three rounds went off. Cope was to my left. Amos was to my left, and then there was me. You cannot tell me today the third round wasn’t meant for me. But I was down. I was eating dirt.”
Ordered by his lieutenant to get up and charge the enemy, McClary fired two shots before his gun jammed. “I had to get back down,” he says on the video. “I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”
Jones said he feels privileged hearing such stories.
“These guys have kept this stuff to themselves for 40 years,” he said. “You’ll see one guy that actually breaks down and cries. I mean, these are hardened criminals and he breaks down and cries on his video.”
About 226,000 of the national’s 25.1 million veterans were in prison or jail in 1998, according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics’ most recent report on the subject.
Matt Davison, chairman of an incarcerated veterans project for New York-based VietNow National, a veterans advocacy group, said most inmate vets he’s met are proud of having served — and many feel remorse for having done something dishonorable.
Barba said most of the inmates he has interviewed for the history project express gratitude that they were able to serve.
In one video, white-haired World War II vet Lee D. Gerhold, doing 50 years for arranging an ex-wife’s murder, grips his cane and says, “I’m thankful to the country for accepting me.”
___
On the Net:
Veterans History Project: http://www.loc.gov/vets
VietNow National: http://www.vietnow.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
4 hurt in explosion at north Georgia law office
Date: 10/17/2008 1:43 PM
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ An explosion at a small-town law firm in northern Georgia injured at least four people Friday, and authorities were seeking someone they believe may have been involved in the attack.
Witnesses said the blast around 10 a.m. blew out the windows at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Police Lt. Bruce Frazier said the blast was caused by some type of explosive device. Investigators were looking into a person of interest in the case, but no one had been arrested, he said. He declined to provide more details.
Bomb squads were checking for sweeping the premises for other explosives, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.
Four people hurt in the explosion were in stable condition at Hamilton Medical Center, spokeswoman Emily Michael said. One of the four was being taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said.
The eight-lawyer firm, founded in 1932, works out of a two-story, colonial-style house. Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site. An elementary school across the street was locked down, though it wasn’t damaged.
State and federal investigators were assisting local authorities.
___
On the Net: http://www.mccamylaw.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
DALTON, Ga. (AP) _ An explosion at a small-town law firm in northern Georgia injured at least four people Friday, and authorities were seeking someone they believe may have been involved in the attack.
Witnesses said the blast around 10 a.m. blew out the windows at McCamy, Phillips, Tuggle & Fordham in Dalton, 26 miles southeast of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Police Lt. Bruce Frazier said the blast was caused by some type of explosive device. Investigators were looking into a person of interest in the case, but no one had been arrested, he said. He declined to provide more details.
Bomb squads were checking for sweeping the premises for other explosives, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.
Four people hurt in the explosion were in stable condition at Hamilton Medical Center, spokeswoman Emily Michael said. One of the four was being taken to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said.
The eight-lawyer firm, founded in 1932, works out of a two-story, colonial-style house. Police cordoned off the block and shut down a post office near the law firm, which specializes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to its Web site. An elementary school across the street was locked down, though it wasn’t damaged.
State and federal investigators were assisting local authorities.
___
On the Net: http://www.mccamylaw.com
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
3 former execs at Texas charity accused of fraud
Date: 10/14/2008 10:18 PM
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
EL PASO, Texas (AP) _ Three former executives of a charity with $834 million in government contracts were arrested Tuesday in a contract fraud probe that has grown to ensnare public officials in El Paso, Texas.
Robert E. Jones, who is charged with 37 counts in the new indictment, once headed the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, which supplied chemical-warfare suits for the military. The company now known as Ready One Industries was raided in 2006 in an investigation of its government contracts, which required that at least 75 percent of NCED workers filling government orders be blind or severely disabled.
The indictment accuses Jones and two other men of lying to the contracts’ overseers about the number of disabled people employed there and embezzling or stealing at least $5,000 from the company, said Shana Jones, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio.
The indictment issued Thursday is sealed. It replaces a five-count indictment against the three men issued in September.
Jones, Ernesto Lopez and Patrick James Woods waived arraignment Tuesday and filed not guilty pleas, said Mary Stillinger, Lopez’s attorney. All were being held on bond.
Stillinger said Lopez looked forward to the case moving ahead so he could defend himself.
“We don’t think Pat Woods is guilty of anything,” said Woods’ lawyer, Jim Darnell. Jones’ lawyer, Joe Spencer, said his client had done nothing wrong. The lawyers declined further comment because they had not seen the indictment.
The federal probe of businesses tied to Jones also sparked a continuing investigation into public corruption that has targeted several current and former officials in El Paso, but federal investigators won’t detail the connections.
Several people, including a former El Paso County commissioner and chief of staff to current County Judge Anthony Cobos, have pleaded guilty to corruption charges. According to federal court records, that probe involves 12 separate investigations and has uncovered widespread abuses.
Details of the cases against those who have pleaded guilty have remained sealed under court order.
Lopez, the former NCED chief operating officer, faces 17 counts in the new indictment. Woods is a former NCED officer and member of the board of directors and faces five counts.
Two civil oversight groups — the President’s Committee for Purchase from People Who are Blind or Severely Disabled and a Virginia nonprofit that helps administer government contracts — concluded that only about 7 percent of workers were handicapped while Jones ran the company.
Jones abruptly resigned from NCED amid the investigation, and Darnell said Woods left in 2007.
The indictment calls for Jones and Lopez to forfeit tens of millions of dollars.
Shana Jones, the U.S. Attorney’s spokeswoman, said prosecutors want Robert Jones to forfeit $58.9 million and Lopez to give up $51.2 million. Prosecutors are asking that Woods forfeit $4.2 million.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer
EL PASO, Texas (AP) _ Three former executives of a charity with $834 million in government contracts were arrested Tuesday in a contract fraud probe that has grown to ensnare public officials in El Paso, Texas.
Robert E. Jones, who is charged with 37 counts in the new indictment, once headed the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled, which supplied chemical-warfare suits for the military. The company now known as Ready One Industries was raided in 2006 in an investigation of its government contracts, which required that at least 75 percent of NCED workers filling government orders be blind or severely disabled.
The indictment accuses Jones and two other men of lying to the contracts’ overseers about the number of disabled people employed there and embezzling or stealing at least $5,000 from the company, said Shana Jones, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio.
The indictment issued Thursday is sealed. It replaces a five-count indictment against the three men issued in September.
Jones, Ernesto Lopez and Patrick James Woods waived arraignment Tuesday and filed not guilty pleas, said Mary Stillinger, Lopez’s attorney. All were being held on bond.
Stillinger said Lopez looked forward to the case moving ahead so he could defend himself.
“We don’t think Pat Woods is guilty of anything,” said Woods’ lawyer, Jim Darnell. Jones’ lawyer, Joe Spencer, said his client had done nothing wrong. The lawyers declined further comment because they had not seen the indictment.
The federal probe of businesses tied to Jones also sparked a continuing investigation into public corruption that has targeted several current and former officials in El Paso, but federal investigators won’t detail the connections.
Several people, including a former El Paso County commissioner and chief of staff to current County Judge Anthony Cobos, have pleaded guilty to corruption charges. According to federal court records, that probe involves 12 separate investigations and has uncovered widespread abuses.
Details of the cases against those who have pleaded guilty have remained sealed under court order.
Lopez, the former NCED chief operating officer, faces 17 counts in the new indictment. Woods is a former NCED officer and member of the board of directors and faces five counts.
Two civil oversight groups — the President’s Committee for Purchase from People Who are Blind or Severely Disabled and a Virginia nonprofit that helps administer government contracts — concluded that only about 7 percent of workers were handicapped while Jones ran the company.
Jones abruptly resigned from NCED amid the investigation, and Darnell said Woods left in 2007.
The indictment calls for Jones and Lopez to forfeit tens of millions of dollars.
Shana Jones, the U.S. Attorney’s spokeswoman, said prosecutors want Robert Jones to forfeit $58.9 million and Lopez to give up $51.2 million. Prosecutors are asking that Woods forfeit $4.2 million.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Suicides from financial crisis cause concern
Date: 10/14/2008 9:00 AM
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.
In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family’s mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: “By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.”
Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.
Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation’s financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.
“I’ve had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that’s happened here since then,” said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York’s financial district. “It’s that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them.”
With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.
“A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They’re losing their homes, they’re going into foreclosure, they’ve lost their jobs,” said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida’s Lee County.
But tragedies keep mounting:
— In Los Angeles last week, a former money manager fatally shot his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law before killing himself.
Karthik Rajaram, 45, left a suicide note saying he was in financial trouble and contemplated killing just himself. But he said he decided to kill his entire family because that was more honorable, police said.
Rajaram once worked for a major accounting firm and for Sony Pictures, and he had been part-owner of a financial holding company. But he had been out of work for several months, police said.
After the murder-suicide, police and mental-health officials in Los Angeles took the unusual step of urging people to seek help for themselves or loved ones if they feel overwhelmed by grim financial news. They said they were specifically afraid of the “copycat phenomenon.”
“This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair,” Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said. “It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times.”
— In Tennessee, a woman fatally shot herself last week as sheriff’s deputies went to evict her from her foreclosed home.
Pamela Ross, 57, and her husband were fighting foreclosure on their home when sheriff’s deputies in Sevierville came to serve an eviction notice. They were across the street when they heard a gunshot and found Ross dead from a wound to the chest. The case was even more tragic because the couple had recently been granted an extra 10 days to appeal.
— In Akron, Ohio, the 90-year-old widow who shot herself on Oct. 1 is recovering. A congressman told Addie Polk’s story on the House floor before lawmakers voted to approve a $700 billion financial rescue package. Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae dropped the foreclosure, forgave her mortgage and said she could remain in the home.
— In Ocala, Fla., Roland Gore shot his wife and dog in March and then set fire to the couple’s home, which had been in foreclosure, before killing himself. His case was one of several in which people killed spouses or pets, destroyed property or attacked police before taking their own lives.
“The financial stress builds up to the point the person feels they can’t go on, and the person believes their family is better off dead than left without a financial support,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center.
Dr. Edward Charlesworth, a clinical psychologist in Houston, said the current crisis is breeding a sense of chronic anxiety among people who feel helpless and panic-stricken, as well as angry that their government has let them down.
“They feel like in this great society that we live in we should have more protection for the individuals rather than just the corporation,” he said.
It’s not yet clear there is a statistical link between suicides and the financial downturn since there is generally a two-year lag in national suicide figures. But historically, suicides increase in times of economic hardship. And the current financial crisis is already being called the worst since the Great Depression.
Rising mortgage defaults and falling home values are at the heart of it. More than 4 million Americans were at least one month behind on their mortgages at the end of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
A record 500,000 had entered the foreclosure process. And that trend is expected to continue through next year, despite the current programs from the government and the lending industry to refinance delinquent homeowners into more affordable loans.
Counselors at Catholic Charities USA report seeing a “significant increase” in the need for housing counseling.
One counselor said half of her clients were on some form of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. The agency has seen a decrease in overall funding, but it has expanded foreclosure counseling and received nearly $2 million for such services in late 2007.
Adding to financially tense households is an air of secrecy. Experts said it’s common for one spouse to blame the other for their financial mess or to hide it entirely, as Balderrama did.
After falling 3½ years behind in payments, the Taunton, Mass., housewife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them before her husband saw them. She tried to refinance but was declined.
In July, on the day the house was to be auctioned, she faxed the note to the mortgage company. Then the 52-year-old walked outside, shot her three beloved cats and then herself with her husband’s rifle.
Notes left on the table revealed months of planning. She’d picked out her funeral home, laid out the insurance policy and left a note saying, “pay off the house with the insurance money.”
“She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her,” said her husband, John Balderrama. “Apparently she didn’t have anyone to talk to. She didn’t come to me. I don’t know why. There’s gotta be some help out there for people that are hurting, (something better) than to see somebody lose a life over a stupid house.”
___
Associated Press Writers P. Solomon Banda in Denver, Joann Loviglio in Philadelphia, Juanita Cousins in Atlanta, Samantha Gross in New York and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.
In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family’s mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: “By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.”
Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.
Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation’s financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.
“I’ve had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that’s happened here since then,” said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York’s financial district. “It’s that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them.”
With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.
“A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They’re losing their homes, they’re going into foreclosure, they’ve lost their jobs,” said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida’s Lee County.
But tragedies keep mounting:
— In Los Angeles last week, a former money manager fatally shot his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law before killing himself.
Karthik Rajaram, 45, left a suicide note saying he was in financial trouble and contemplated killing just himself. But he said he decided to kill his entire family because that was more honorable, police said.
Rajaram once worked for a major accounting firm and for Sony Pictures, and he had been part-owner of a financial holding company. But he had been out of work for several months, police said.
After the murder-suicide, police and mental-health officials in Los Angeles took the unusual step of urging people to seek help for themselves or loved ones if they feel overwhelmed by grim financial news. They said they were specifically afraid of the “copycat phenomenon.”
“This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair,” Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said. “It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times.”
— In Tennessee, a woman fatally shot herself last week as sheriff’s deputies went to evict her from her foreclosed home.
Pamela Ross, 57, and her husband were fighting foreclosure on their home when sheriff’s deputies in Sevierville came to serve an eviction notice. They were across the street when they heard a gunshot and found Ross dead from a wound to the chest. The case was even more tragic because the couple had recently been granted an extra 10 days to appeal.
— In Akron, Ohio, the 90-year-old widow who shot herself on Oct. 1 is recovering. A congressman told Addie Polk’s story on the House floor before lawmakers voted to approve a $700 billion financial rescue package. Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae dropped the foreclosure, forgave her mortgage and said she could remain in the home.
— In Ocala, Fla., Roland Gore shot his wife and dog in March and then set fire to the couple’s home, which had been in foreclosure, before killing himself. His case was one of several in which people killed spouses or pets, destroyed property or attacked police before taking their own lives.
“The financial stress builds up to the point the person feels they can’t go on, and the person believes their family is better off dead than left without a financial support,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center.
Dr. Edward Charlesworth, a clinical psychologist in Houston, said the current crisis is breeding a sense of chronic anxiety among people who feel helpless and panic-stricken, as well as angry that their government has let them down.
“They feel like in this great society that we live in we should have more protection for the individuals rather than just the corporation,” he said.
It’s not yet clear there is a statistical link between suicides and the financial downturn since there is generally a two-year lag in national suicide figures. But historically, suicides increase in times of economic hardship. And the current financial crisis is already being called the worst since the Great Depression.
Rising mortgage defaults and falling home values are at the heart of it. More than 4 million Americans were at least one month behind on their mortgages at the end of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
A record 500,000 had entered the foreclosure process. And that trend is expected to continue through next year, despite the current programs from the government and the lending industry to refinance delinquent homeowners into more affordable loans.
Counselors at Catholic Charities USA report seeing a “significant increase” in the need for housing counseling.
One counselor said half of her clients were on some form of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. The agency has seen a decrease in overall funding, but it has expanded foreclosure counseling and received nearly $2 million for such services in late 2007.
Adding to financially tense households is an air of secrecy. Experts said it’s common for one spouse to blame the other for their financial mess or to hide it entirely, as Balderrama did.
After falling 3½ years behind in payments, the Taunton, Mass., housewife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them before her husband saw them. She tried to refinance but was declined.
In July, on the day the house was to be auctioned, she faxed the note to the mortgage company. Then the 52-year-old walked outside, shot her three beloved cats and then herself with her husband’s rifle.
Notes left on the table revealed months of planning. She’d picked out her funeral home, laid out the insurance policy and left a note saying, “pay off the house with the insurance money.”
“She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her,” said her husband, John Balderrama. “Apparently she didn’t have anyone to talk to. She didn’t come to me. I don’t know why. There’s gotta be some help out there for people that are hurting, (something better) than to see somebody lose a life over a stupid house.”
___
Associated Press Writers P. Solomon Banda in Denver, Joann Loviglio in Philadelphia, Juanita Cousins in Atlanta, Samantha Gross in New York and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
US Marine charged with assaulting Sydney woman
Date: 10/13/2008 9:50 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ A U.S. Marine has been charged with assaulting a prostitute while on shore leave in Sydney last weekend, police and the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old man, who was not identified, was charged late Monday with assault involving “bodily harm” following an incident at a Sydney brothel on Sunday, police said in a statement.
He was released on bail.
The U.S. Embassy in Canberra said the U.S. Navy was cooperating with the investigation and confirmed that the man, who shipped out Tuesday, will return to Australia to face the charges in court on Nov. 10.
The Marine was one of 3,000 Marines and Navy personnel on shore leave in Sydney after the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu and guided missile destroyer USS Halsey arrived in the port on Friday. The ships departed Tuesday.
Another Marine is being treated at a Sydney hospital for a fractured skull and other head injuries after being assaulted on Saturday night. The 23-year-old is in stable but serious condition, police say. His identity also was not given.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ A U.S. Marine has been charged with assaulting a prostitute while on shore leave in Sydney last weekend, police and the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday.
The 25-year-old man, who was not identified, was charged late Monday with assault involving “bodily harm” following an incident at a Sydney brothel on Sunday, police said in a statement.
He was released on bail.
The U.S. Embassy in Canberra said the U.S. Navy was cooperating with the investigation and confirmed that the man, who shipped out Tuesday, will return to Australia to face the charges in court on Nov. 10.
The Marine was one of 3,000 Marines and Navy personnel on shore leave in Sydney after the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu and guided missile destroyer USS Halsey arrived in the port on Friday. The ships departed Tuesday.
Another Marine is being treated at a Sydney hospital for a fractured skull and other head injuries after being assaulted on Saturday night. The 23-year-old is in stable but serious condition, police say. His identity also was not given.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.