hMore on mall shooting

hMore on mall shooting
TACOMA, Wash. -- A man accused of a shooting spree at a crowded shopping mall told authorities to "just follow the screams" when he called them shortly before opening fire with a pair of assault rifles, according to court documents released Monday. Plans for making bombs and poison gas were later found after a search of the man's car and bedroom, prosecutors said. Dominick Sergio Maldonado, 20, was ordered held on $2 million bail after pleading innocent Monday to multiple charges. According to the court documents, Maldonado told detectives he had been humiliated during a troubled childhood and that recent problems made him want to be "heard." A text message to his ex-girlfriend minutes before the rampage said he was about to show the world his anger, the woman said. Six people were injured, one critically, in Sunday's attack. Maldonado surrendered about four hours after he ducked into a music store and took four hostages, including Jon and Desiree Black, above. All the hostages were released unharmed, authorities said. In the documents, prosecutors said Maldonado, of Tacoma, denied intending to shoot anyone, but was trying to draw media attention. Police said they got a call just before the melee erupted, with the caller saying he was armed with two assault rifles and about to start shooting. When the dispatcher asked the man where he was, he replied, "Just follow the screams," the papers said.
Two get life sentencesin killing of sheriff-elect
ATLANTA -- Two men were sentenced to life in prison Monday in the assassination of a sheriff-elect who was gunned down on orders from the man he defeated at the polls. Melvin Walker and David Ramsey were convicted in August on federal charges of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. Prosecutors said they were promised jobs and perks to kill incoming DeKalb County Sheriff Derwin Brown. Brown was ambushed and shot at least a dozen times in front of his home in December 2000, just days before he was to have succeeded Sheriff Sidney Dorsey. Suspicion immediately fell on Dorsey, who was later convicted of plotting the murder and is serving a life sentence.
Looking for clues in diary
KINGSTON, Tenn. -- A woman accused of killing a prison guard while helping her convict husband escape from a courthouse was arraigned Monday, and her lawyers said they are hoping to see her diary, which was seized by prosecutors. In a 34-page handwritten account titled "A Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde," Jennifer Hyatte, 31, allegedly compared herself and her husband, George Hyatte, 34, to the bank-robbing couple of the Depression era. The dairy was left in her jail cell after the couple's capture in Columbus, Ohio. Prosecutors will likely use it against her, defense attorney John Eldridge said after Monday's brief arraignment. Jennifer Hyatte entered no plea and the judge set a trial date of July 25, 2006. "We certainly are concerned about any writings that she may have made that were confiscated from her in jail," Eldridge said. "I haven't seem them." George Hyatte's trial is set for Aug. 8.
No new clues in JFK case
WASHINGTON -- In the 42 years since the assassination of President Kennedy, here's what has been agreed on by those who still pursue one of the most sensational crimes in history: very little, if anything. After the release of millions of pages of documents, and more than four decades of probes by professionals and amateurs, there is no consensus among those who toil in the conspiracy theory industry. Some see the fingerprints of the Mafia, others the CIA. For some it was the Cubans, the Russians, Jimmy Hoffa or just about everyone who was anyone on or about Nov. 22, 1963. No theory tying together disparate characters or events is too outlandish: Remember the Maine? Some even link the explosion that sank the U.S. battleship in Havana harbor in 1898 to the shooting of Kennedy 65 years later, the belief being that both marked trumped-up pretexts for American intervention in Cuba. Interest comes to a head each year around the time of the assassination anniversary, which is today.
Associated Press