Sheriff: 6 children, 2 adults shot to death

Sheriff: 6 children, 2 adults shot to death

BELL, Fla.

A man killed six of his grandchildren, his adult daughter and himself in a shooting at a home in a small town in North Florida on Thursday, a sheriff said.

Gilchrist County Sheriff Robert Schultz at a news conference identified the man as 51-year-old Don Spirit. He said the children ranged in age from 3 months to 10 years old. He would not say if the woman killed was the mother of the children.

Schultz said a deputy who arrived on a report of a shooting Thursday made contact with Spirit, who later committed suicide.

He said Spirit was the only suspect and that some people were left alive at the home.

He would not identify those killed.

A photo on the Gainesville Sun’s website shows several police vehicles on a rural road. A deputy sheriff was keeping people away behind police tape.

Bell is a town of just 350 people about 30 miles west of Gainesville.

Sierra Leone to shut down for 3 days

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone

In a desperate bid to slow West Africa’s accelerating Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone ordered its 6 million people confined to their homes for three days starting today while volunteers conduct a house-to-house search for victims in hiding.

At an emergency meeting, meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council unanimously called the crisis “a threat to international peace and security” and urged all countries to provide experts, field hospitals and medical supplies. It was only the second time the council addressed a health emergency, the first being the AIDS epidemic.

Officers fatally shoot man near St. Louis

CLAYTON, Mo.

Officers shot and killed a man after he reportedly pointed a rifle at them in suburban St. Louis, the second fatal police shooting of a black suspect in the region since the August shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Two officers fired a combined 25 shots Wednesday night after a chase in which the 42-year-old man slammed his vehicle into two police cars then fled on foot into a construction area, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said. The officers told Belmar the suspect tried to fire, but his .22-caliber rifle jammed.

Belmar declined to name the man pending notification of relatives but said he had a lengthy criminal record and had spent eight years in prison on drug and weapons charges. The officers both have been with the department four years.

Obama meets with Ukrainian president

WASHINGTON

In a show of solidarity with Ukraine, President Barack Obama welcomed the new leader of the embattled former Soviet republic to the White House on Thursday, but he stopped short of fulfilling his visitor’s urgent request for lethal aid to fight Russian-backed separatists.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko renewed his call for American weaponry during an emotional address to a joint meeting of Congress, where his remarks were repeatedly interrupted by applause from lawmakers in both parties. Though he expressed appreciation for the non-lethal assistance from the U.S., Poroshenko said it was not enough to quell the violence that has dogged eastern Ukraine.

“Blankets and night-vision goggles are important, but one cannot win a war with a blanket,” Poroshenko said before heading to the White House for his meeting with Obama.

Associated Press