Briefs: US shooting, December 17, 2012
BARTLESVILLE, Oklahoma - Hours before a gunman opened fire at a Connecticut elementary school, police in Oklahoma arrested a teenager for allegedly plotting to attack his high school and trying to recruit classmates to help him. Police arrested 18-year-old Sammie Eaglebear Chavez on Friday. A student told authorities that Chavez had tried to "recruit other students to assist him with carrying out a plan to lure students into the school auditorium where he planned to begin shooting them after chaining the doors shut," police said in the affidavit. AP
WASHINGTON - American sports stars shaken by the shooting deaths in Connecticut are paying tribute to the victims of the tragedy. National Football League games will hold a moment of silence to remember the victims, with the New York Giants and New York Jets planning to wear an adhesive strip on their helmets marked "SHES," the acronym of Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School. AFP
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict yesterday prayed for the families of the victims of the school massacre during his weekly address in St Peter's Square. "I was deeply saddened by Friday's senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut. I assure the families of the victims, especially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer," the pope told thousands of pilgrims. AFP
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Police in Alabama shot dead two suspects following separate shooting incidents, one of which left three dead. A male suspect was shot in eastern Alabama by police following the fatal shooting of three males at a mobile home park. The suspect was armed with an AK-47. In a separate incident, 38-year-old Jason Letts of Jemison opened fire at a hospital in Birmingham, wounding a police officer and two employees before being shot and killed by another officer. AP
NEW YORK - The Rolling Stones acknowledged the shooting deaths in Connecticut during a show in New York. "We just wanted to send our love and condolences to all the people who lost loved ones in the tragedy in Connecticut," singer Mick Jagger said. AP
