There Is A Madness About In The World -The Vegas Killings
Frank Jackman comment:
Frank Jackman comment:
Sometimes it is hard to figure out the motivation, or make
sense of the details of any particular horrific news story but the recent Vegas
killing spree (see report below) makes me think that after the last decade or so
of unrelenting social, political and economic turmoil on the world scene and
here in America that there are more than the couple involved in the Vegas
shooting just waiting for their “fifteen minutes” in the sun. People for lots of reasons, justified or not, have come unhinged. Needless to say
that the “revolution’ that the couple contemplated would be bad news for the
likes of this writer, blacks and other minorities, and anybody else who
disagreed with their worldview ( I assume they thought they were vanguard elements
and hence martyrs when things went awry somewhere in their lives). I may be
overplaying the significance of this event but reading about it sent chills up
and down my spine.
Two Cops, Three Others Killed in Las Vegas Shooting Spree
A Las Vegas couple who shot to death two police officers, a third person and then themselves delivered an ominous message as they left home before the ambush with a shopping cart of weapons, a neighbor said.
"We gotta do what we gotta do," Jerad Miller told Kelly Fielder, adding that he and his wife, Amanda, were departing for an "underground world."
Amanda Miller then embraced the neighbor and said, "I am so sorry."
Fielder said she had heard the husband make anti-government statements in the past — including a desire to overthrow the government and President Obama and kill police officers — but was not alarmed by them. The couple also liked to dress up like the Batman character, The Joker, and his sidekick Harley Quinn.
"I thought he was just all talk," Fielder, who described herself as Amanda's "best friend," told NBC Los Angeles.
In retrospect, Fielder said, she wishes she had alerted the authorities when the couple took off on foot from their Spruce St. home early Sunday with an arsenal in their red cart.
"I should have called the cops right then. I thought he was talking outside of his neck."
Jerad Miller had two guns and "all kinds of ammunition," Fielder said. His wife carried a .38 caliber handgun in her purse and also had an AR-1 rifle, she said.
"They said they were going to go to an underground world and they needed protection," she said.
"I should have called the cops right then. I thought he was talking outside of his neck."
Less than six hours later, the couple barged into CiCi's Pizza a few miles away, yelled “This is the start of a revolution!” and started firing, witnesses told police.
The officers, Alyn Beck, 42, and Igor Soldo, 32, were inside having lunch, and both were mortally wounded, Sheriff Doug Gillespie said.
Authorities said the suspects stripped the dead officers of their weapons and ammunition. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported they covered the dead officers with the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag, which depicts a coiled snake and the words “Don’t Tread On Me.”
The shooters then headed to a Walmart, where they yelled, "Everyone get out!" before unleashing a hail of bullets.
“They just said, ‘The revolution’s begun,’ they said that they shot some officers, and basically get out of the store if you don’t want to get hurt,” said Tyrone Ellis, who works at the store.
The couple sprayed bullets, hitting a third person, who was identified Monday as Joseph Robert Wilcox, 31 of Las Vegas.
When cops arrived at the store, they found Wilcox at the front entrance and exchanged fire with the suspects, who fled further into the store, Gillespie said.
Officers then heard more shots: The Millers apparently killed themselves, in what officials described as "some kind of suicide pact."
The motive for the entire episode was unclear.
Fielder portrayed Jerad Miller as the dominant partner in the relationship — "He was a very controlling person" — and suggested his wife was not happy about his anti-government rhetoric.
She said that he had boasted about killing police officers and putting swastikas on their body. The couple had traveled with her to the ranch where Cliven Bundy led an armed standoff with federal rangers, but Fielder said she didn't stay.
No comments:
Post a Comment