May 3 top stories
It is May 3. Here are today’s top stories.
Atlanta mass shooting
Today around noon, a gunman shot five people in a waiting room in the Northside Hospital Medical in downtown Atlanta, killing a 39-year-old female and injuring four adult women. News channels showed that there was a massive police presence in downtown Atlanta.
The suspect is a 24-year-old man named Deion Patterson and he is still at large. He fled the scene and police said he may have carjacked a vehicle and then left it. Police in Atlanta said they are actively looking for him.
CNN reported that he arrived at the medical center today with his mother for an appointment for himself. Patterson became angry for some reason and started shooting with a handgun. He has a military background. The mother is uninjured and is cooperating with police.
Three of those who were wounded are in critical condition and underwent surgery.
Police warned the public that Patterson should be considered armed and dangerous.
Texas neighbor shooting suspect captured
The man who is suspected of fatally shooting five of his neighbors, including a child, at a home in Texas last week was found and arrested on Tuesday night. The suspect, Francisco Oropesa, was found hiding in a closet of a home. He is now charged with five counts of murder.
His wife was also arrested and charged with hindering apprehension.
Oropesa is a Mexican national and was illegally in the U.S. He was deported at least four times since 2009.
All the victims were Honduran nationals.
Prior to the shooting, Oropesa was doing target practice with his gun in his yard. His neighbors asked him to stop because the noise was preventing a baby from sleeping at night. He refused to stop and the neighbors said they would call the police. He got angry and entered their home, shot it up, and fled. Now he’s captured.
Joel Embiid named NBA MVP
Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2022-23 season. The winner is decided by a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters in the U.S. and Canada.
During the regular season, Embiid averaged 33 points per game and 10 rebounds per game. He was born in Cameroon and moved to the U.S. when he was 16 years old.
An interesting fact is that this is the fifth consecutive year that an international player has won the MVP award with previous winners being Nikola Jokic, a Serbian, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, a Greek-Nigerian.
Bear spooks West Virginia principal
A viral video shows the moment that a principal at a West Virginia school opened a dumpster at an elementary school to find a black bear inside. Both the principal and the bear were spooked.
[Video Clip - Credit: FB / Nicholas County Board of Education]
CBS News explained that the bear got into the dumpster over the weekend. The principal opened the dumpster at around 7:15 am Monday morning. The dumpster had a lock bar over it but the bear was able to move it away to get inside. State officials came to the school and made modifications to the dumpster to make it more secure.
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Russia claims Ukraine attempted to kill Putin
Russian officials accused Ukraine of sending drones in an attempt to kill Russian President Putin. They said there were two that were flying towards the Kremlin in Moscow overnight but that they were stopped and destroyed.
Ukrainian officials said this is not true and that Russia is trying to create a pretext for an attack, that this was a trick. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy visited Finland, the newest NATO member, today and said they don’t attack Russia because they only use their weapons to defend their villages and cities.
The U.S. Secretary of State Blinken said he can’t validate the reports from Russia and that he usually doubts anything coming out of the Kremlin.
In separate but related news, Ukrainian officials said at least 17 people were killed in the city of Kherson from widespread Russian shelling that hit a supermarket, a railway station, and residential areas.
Serbia school shooting: 9 killed
In Belgrade, Serbia, a 14-year-old student shot and killed eight students and a security guard at a school. Six other students and a teacher were wounded.
The student shooter used two handguns that belonged to his father.
Police said the shooter first shot at the security guard before entering the school and shooting up a hallway and a classroom. Police said the shooter planned everything and had a list of students that he wanted to kill.
The suspect, who is a seventh-grade student, was arrested. Police said he confessed to the shooting. His father was also arrested.
News images show many police officers, ambulances, and weeping children and parents at the scene of the school.
Reuters said gun ownership is widespread in Serbia.
Court upholds exclusion of Montana trans lawmaker
The Guardian reported that a Montana state judge ruled in favor of the Montana legislature in their decision to exclude transgender state representative Zooey Zephyr from the House floor.
Zephyr was first barred from speaking on the floor after she told Republican lawmakers that they would have “blood on their hands” for supporting a bill that would ban gender-affirming medical care for children. A few days later, about 100 people protested in the statehouse in support of Zephyr. She held up a microphone while police removed protesters. After that, House Republicans voted to bar Zephyr from the House floor for the rest of the 2023 legislative session, which ends this week.
Zephyr filed a lawsuit saying her exclusion is a violation of the Montana Constitution. The judge said it was outside of his authority to overrule lawmakers. The judge said it is important to preserve the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
The Montana legislative session is ending this week, so this situation is going to end.
The legislature won’t meet again until 2025. Zephyr said she will run for re-election in 2024.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/02/sport/joel-embiid-nba-mvp-2023-philadelphia-76rs/index.html
https://www.nba.com/news/2022-23-kia-nba-most-valuable-player-award
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-05-03-23
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/03/zooey-zephyr-montana-transgender-lawmaker-barred