SDB Evening News Reads: VT, Iran and other things

Good evening!

There was another violent shooting at Virginia Tech today, Violence Revisits Virginia Tech After Two Are Killed in Shooting – NYTimes.com

Two people, including a police officer, were shot and killed Thursday afternoon on the campus of Virginia Tech, the scene of a 2007 massacre in which 33 people were slain, the authorities said. The campus police officer, whose name was not released, was shot at close range by a man who had walked up to him as the officer was making a traffic stop in a school parking lot at about noon, the police said.

The shooter was one of the victims.  Official: Gunman was second victim

Officials say a police officer pulled someone over for a traffic stop, and was then shot and killed. Officials continued, saying the gunman then ran toward a nearby parking lot, where a second person was found dead. Officials have as of 7 p.m. confirmed the second victim found in the nearby parking lot was the gunman.

The murder/suicide comes on the same day that a hearing on the 2007 mass killing was being held, as the heading on this next article states:  Clery Act hearing: Va. Tech officials testify in April 16-related case – Roanoke.com

Virginia Tech is lobbying against a $55,000 fine levied by the Department of Education for failing to give a timely warning to its campus community during the April 16, 2007, shootings.

A precedent-setting hearing in Washington concluded early today in the case of Virginia Tech’s appeal of federal fines levied against it in the wake of the April 16, 2007, shootings on campus.

Tech officials put on four witnesses today, including campus police Chief Wendell Flinchum, who testified about why his department and assisting agencies treated an early morning shooting in West Ambler-Johnston Hall as an isolated crime, and not a threat to the wider campus.

Tech was fined by the U.S. Department of Education for failing to immediately warn the campus community of a shooter on the loose after students Emily Hilscher and Ryan Clark were found fatally shot in Hilscher’s dorm room. Two hours later troubled student Seung-Hui Cho chained the doors of Norris Hall shut and opened fire in classrooms. Thirty more students and faculty were killed, and more than a dozen were wounded before Cho shot himself.

In closing the hearing Thursday, presiding Judge Ernest Canellos ordered attorneys for Tech and the Department of Education to include any closing statements in briefs to be submitted to him by the end of January. The judge will then issue a written decision.

Canellos could uphold the $55,000 fine against Tech, or reduce or eliminate it.

The hearing was to last for three days, but VT presented few witnesses than they originally scheduled.

Many past fines levied by the department have been reduced on appeal. But this is the first time an evidentiary hearing has been held in a Clery Act case. If either side is unhappy with Canellos’ ruling, the case can be appealed to Arne Duncan, secretary of education.

Is it all a tragic coincidence? Things are still being investigated, they are not releasing names as of yet, so perhaps we will learn more by tomorrow.

Iran has released some photos and a US official confirms: U.S. official: Iran does have our drone – CBS News

This photo released on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, claims to show US RQ-170 Sentinel drone which Tehran says its forces downed earlier this week, as the chief of the aerospace division of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, right, listens to an unidentified colonel, in an undisclosed location, Iran. (AP Photo/Sepahnews)

A U.S. official tells CBS News that there is “high confidence” that a captured American aircraft shown on Iranian television today is, in fact, one of this country’s most sophisticated spy planes.

The Pentagon declined to comment, but the American official says analysis of the video confirms the RQ-170 unmanned drone was captured. Exactly how that happened is still being analyzed.

Of course Iran is thumping its chest over the capture:

CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that the aircraft presented as the unmanned U.S. surveillance drone appeared to be nearly intact, though the undercarriage was obscured by propaganda banners draped below the wings.

The message on the left proclaimed, “America cannot do any harm to us.” And on the right, against a background of American flags and skulls, the message read: “We have trampled on America.”

All I can say is that I am glad the one woman who I feel confident enough to handle this is Secretary of State. I cannot even imagine a world where we would have to rely on John Bolton to navigate the difficult foreign relations that Iran and the US has.

Here is an update on Jorelys Rivera: Attorney: Suspect in Georgia girl’s slaying will plead not guilty – CNN.com

Ryan Brunn, the suspect in the slaying of a 7-year-old Georgia girl who lived in the apartment complex where he worked, will plead “not guilty,” his attorney said Thursday.

A court date for an arraignment has not been set. David Cannon Sr., one of his court-appointed attorneys, said Brunn will enter a “not guilty plea” at the appropriate time.

Brunn wore an orange jumpsuit and a bullet-proof vest Thursday during his first court appearance.

His hands and feet were shackled during the hearing, which lasted only a few minutes.

After the hearing, defense attorney Daran Burns told reporters that his client was “very shaken.”

“We’re investigating our case. It’s obviously a very tragic case. It’s a very serious case. We take it very seriously. Just give us time to do our jobs,” he said.

Brunn is in a segregated area of the prison, for his own safety, and he wore a bullet proof vest to court today…

Jesus Palomino, who lives in the apartment complex, said he attended Thursday’s court appearance “to see justice be served against this criminal that was living in my neighborhood.”

“The mood right now inside the apartment complex is very saddening, you know, it’s hard to go outside without looking both ways before you even step outside your door, because you’re just scared that somebody might be there,” he said.

Thursday’s court appearance came after the little girl’s mother called for capital punishment for the suspect.

“I don’t want any charges brought against him,” Joseline Rivera told CNN affiliate WSB. “What I want is the death penalty. He’s an animal. He killed my little angel.”

Jorelys mother works the night shift at a Pilgrims Pride chicken processing plant in Canton, when her daughter went missing, Georgia Dept. of Families took her other two children and put them in foster care for…lack of supervision.

Today her two daughters were ordered back to the family:

Meanwhile, a judge ruled that Joseline Rivera’s two younger children — Jorelys’ half-siblings — could return to the custody of family members, attorney John Connley told reporters.

Authorities took away the two children, ages 4 and 1, on Saturday, a day after Jorelys went missing. The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services cited lack of supervision. Connley, who represents the children’s father, did not specify which parent would have custody.

The father lives in Miami.  I can’t imagine what this mother is going through. To have your daughter brutally murdered, then have both your other children taken away…it is heartbreaking.

Residents of the apartment complex feel the police should have moved in on the suspect earlier, as there was many people who voiced concern about Brunn.

Neighbor Heather Johnson-Coker said residents were suspicious of Brunn after investigators found Jorelys’ body in the trash compactor, which can only be operated with a key that employees at the complex have.

She said the maintenance worker had mentioned the large number of vacant apartments in the complex when a boy from the area went missing for a few hours recently.

“He said, and I quote, ‘It would be really easy for someone to break in and do something to one of these children,'” Johnson-Coker said Wednesday.

I am just relieved that a suspect was caught. This was a horrendous crime that appears to be calculated and planned out…Jorelys mother worked nights, she was Hispanic, and I cannot help but think this was also part of the plan…the thought process being that she would not receive the same attention as a blonde, blue eyed girl. I can’t understand why it would take so long for them to check the trash compactor…and then why would the Dept. of Family Services would take away her other girls? After all the bad news out of Arizona, and the complete neglect in processing crimes against undocumented children, it just seems disturbing on so many different levels.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, this crime has really affected me, I can’t explain…

Have a good evening, and please treat this like an open thread…