Tag: Texas

Trump heads to Texas to give boost to ‘Lyin’ Ted’

by Eleonore Sens / with Jerome Cartillier in Washington Agence France Presse HOUSTON, United States (AFP) — “Big Night in Texas!” Donald Trump promised in his Monday morning tweet. Ted Cruz hopes it is as well. The US leader arrived in the Lone Star State in the evening to give a shot in the arm to the Senate campaign of Cruz, his fiercest rival for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Wearing black cowboy boots, […]

Mental health, school security among topics for discussion after Texas mass shooting

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott unveiled dozens of recommendations Wednesday focused on mental health and school safety after the latest US mass shooting to claim children’s lives. The governor’s recommendations came nearly two weeks after a 17-year-old student gunned down eight fellow students and two teachers at Santa Fe High School in rural Southeast Texas, and injured 13 others. Of the 40 recommendations put forth by the Republican governor of the […]

Texas begins talks on preventing school shootings

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott met Tuesday with experts and politicians to discuss how to prevent school shootings, five days after a teenage gunman killed 10 people at a high school in the southern US state. Abbott, a Republican, focused the first of three “roundtable sessions” on school safety. Over the next two days, gun regulation, mental health issues, and victims’ needs are also on the agenda. The talks came in […]

UPDATED: Ten killed, 10 hurt in Texas school shooting — governor

Ten people were killed and another 10 injured when a student opened fire Friday at a high school in Texas, the state’s governor said. “It’s with a very heavy heart that I can confirm that as of this time, there have been 10 lives that have been lost, and another 10 that have been wounded,” Governor Greg Abbott told a news conference. The shooting took place as classes were beginning for the day at Santa […]

Texas bomber ‘not sorry’ on confession tape: report

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — The man behind a series of package bombs that terrorized Texas state capital Austin left a recorded confession expressing no remorse and describing himself as a “psychopath,” a newspaper reported Thursday. Mark Conditt, who was wanted for a series of bombings over three weeks that killed two people and injured several others, died after detonating a bomb in his car Wednesday as police closed in. Police said the 23-year-old left […]

Texas bomb suspect blows himself up after police move in

by Mark Henricks © Agence France-Presse AUSTIN, United States (AFP) — A man suspected of carrying out a series of parcel bombings in the Texas capital Austin blew himself up Wednesday as police closed in, easing tensions in a city that had been on edge for weeks. Police said they surrounded Mark Conditt, a 23-year-old white male, outside a hotel in city suburbs, where a series of bombings that began on March 2 killed two people […]

Sixth apparent explosion in Texas: authorities

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — A sixth explosion was reported in the city of Austin, Texas late Tuesday, following a series of blasts that have so far killed two people, authorities said. Emergency officials said they were responding to a reported blast in the southern part of the state capital city. A man in his thirties was taken to hospital “with potentially serious, not expected to be life-threatening, injuries,” Austin’s medical services agency said on Twitter. […]

Trump slams ‘sick people’ for Texas bombings after fifth blast

  by Suzanne Cordeiro with Nova Safo in Chicago © Agence France-Presse AUSTIN, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump on Tuesday denounced a series of package bombings in Texas, calling those behind them “very, very sick,” following an explosion at a FedEx facility that officials said appeared to be linked to four others. Until now, the spate of blasts that began in early March had been contained to Austin, the state capital with a […]

Arms dealer indicted for ammo sold to Las Vegas shooter

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) – An Arizona man was charged Friday with making armor-piercing ammunition without a license and selling it to the Las Vegas gunman whose October killing spree left 58 concert-goers dead. Stephen Paddock, 64, killed himself after the rampage carried out from his hotel suite on Las Vegas’ famed Strip on October 1 — the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history. Douglas Haig, 55, is charged with one count of conspiracy to […]

Family dispute may have sparked Texas church shooting

  by Nova Safo Agence France Presse SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, United States (AFP) — A family dispute may have sparked the rampage by a US Air Force veteran who killed 26 people with an assault rifle in a small-town church even though he was legally prohibited from buying guns, officials said Monday. Ten people remained in critical condition a day after Devin Patrick Kelley, a 26-year-old private security guard, burst into the rural Baptist church during […]

Texas church shooting witness: ‘He wouldn’t stop’

by Nova Safo Agence France Presse SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, United States (AFP) — Terrie Smith was planning a lazy Sunday, before the bullets started flying. The 54-year-old owns a restaurant in a gas station across the street from the First Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. She had gone to fill up her car to enjoy her day off, when the unthinkable happened. Smith watched, horrified, as 26-year-old gunman Devin Patrick Kelley encircled the church, raining […]

Texas church shooting: what we know

SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, United States (AFP) — A gunman wearing all black armed with an assault rifle opened fire on a small-town Texas church during Sunday morning services, killing 26 people and wounding 20 more in the last mass shooting to shock the United States. Here’s what we know so far about the attack. – What happened – Around 11:20 am (1720 GMT), the gunman fired outside at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a rural […]