Thursday, March 06, 2008

North Carolina School Shooting...

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. — A campus security officer is dead and several Elizabeth City State University officials are in jail charged with murder following a bizarre incident at the college campus yesterday.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported in Wednesday's editions that an armed man burst into a classroom Friday, threatening to kill students. According to several people who were in the room, as he ranted at them and waved a gun around, the students and teacher responded in a way the gunman did not expect.

Assistant professor Jingbin Wang, whose American foreign policy class was held hostage. "I was not prepared to die at that moment," Wang said Tuesday of the moment the gunman entered the room. "I know from the study of history that it is better to resist than to submit. My ancestors were driven from their homes by warlords and communists, but I'm an American. And Liviu Librescuwas on the cover of every magazine in the country- I just followed his example."

"Professor Wang was incredible", said George Hanover, one of the students. "While he was telling us to line up against the wall, he just launched himself at the guy, and it was on. One of the students grabbed a chair and hit him, and Lizzie grabbed onto him and dragged him down. It was like United 93, we just pounded on him until we got the gun away."

The attacker died from his injuries.

Unknown to the students, they had been unknowing participants in an "emergency response drill". The man who attacked them was a campus security officer, ordered to assault the students in the "drill". The gun was only a red plastic model, but Wang and others said they didn't have time to examine it as they were being attacked.

Following a brief investigation, ECSU Chancellor Willie J. Gilchrist, Anthony Brown, vice chancellor of student affairs, and Samuel Beamon, director of public safety, were arrested. Each was charged with eleven counts of aggravated assault, eleven counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and one count of murder, listing the security officer as the victim. No students were charged.

"Look here, in North Carolina, when you go into a room full of innocent people and tell them you're going to kill them, I HOPE they resist", said Sheriff Andy Taylor. "None of those people did anything wrong. They were placed in reasonable fear of imminent death, and did what the law allows and human nature demands. The days of lining up like sheep are over. With people like Adam Walburger and LaShanda Quantrell being all over the news, people know what to do now. I'm proud of them."

District Attorney Mike Notnifong explained the charges. "Entering the classroom and threatening the students with what appeared to be a weapon is aggravated assault, a felony. All three of the defendants conspired together to make that happen, and ordered their employee to commit the crime. Even if no one had been hurt, they would have been charged, as would the security officer if he had lived.

In North Carolina, when someone is killed during the perpetration of a felony, the person committing the underlying felony is criminally responsible for the death as a murder. It's called the felony murder doctrine. Usually it's applied to robbers and burglars who kill their victims, but it has been used to convict accomplices when a co conspirator was killed by a resisting victim, too.

Look, this was incredibly foreseeable. Just a week ago, the NIU attacker was beaten to death by resisting students. The defendants knowingly and intentionally put twelve people in peril, and one died. These defendants killed him, and if a jury agrees they will do life in prison."

Just a dream... But they SHOULD charge the people who did and ordered this.

Seriously, click on the Gilchrist and Beamon links- in light of this incident, their previous sayings are hilarious.

And sorry, Miss C- you were wrong. Too much Rosa Parks and M.L. King, not enough Peter Salem and Nat Turner.

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