Appalachian School of Law Shootings

Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio)

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital and a third student was upgraded from fair to good condition. The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree. Former student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged in the attack. Police said he recently flunked out.

The Associated Press

Ted Besen says he had yearned to become a defense attorney, but changed his mind in the wake of the slayings of the dean, a professor and another student at the Appalachian School of Law.

“I don’t ever want to defend someone like him,” Besen said.

The former Marine and police officer was among several students who tackled former classmate Peter Odighizuwa on the school’s front lawn after last week’s shootings.

When classes resume Wednesday at the school, Besen, 37, and others said they’ll return with mixed emotions.

“You just feel violated somehow,” Besen said Tuesday at a nearby restaurant.

“I’ve been having bad dreams,” said 42-year-old Mary Kilpatrick. “I guess there’s no more security in law schools than there is any other place.”

Kilpatrick said she and about 20 other students spent most of Monday in the school lounge, scrubbing blood stains from the rug and rearranging furniture.

“It’s therapeutic being back here; it keeps my mind off of things,” Kilpatrick said.

Police say Odighizuwa shot Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell in their offices last Wednesday, then opened fire in the school lounge, killing student Angela Dales and injuring three others.

Odighizuwa, 43, had recently learned he’d flunked out for the second time. He’s charged with three counts of capital murder, three counts of attempted capital murder and six weapons charges. Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty.

“We’re going to have an unofficial class reunion the day he gets the chair,” said Matthew Harvey, who spent the week driving between memorial services with other students.

The school reopened Tuesday, holding a two-hour counseling session and discussing the class schedule for the rest of the semester.

Outside, faculty and students wrote good-bye messages in memorial books that will be given to victims’ families.

“I keep expecting Dean Sutin to come back,” said 22-year-old Melanie Page. “I just miss them all so much.”

Associated Press Online

Ted Besen says he had yearned to become a defense attorney, but changed his mind in the wake of the slayings of the dean, a professor and another student at the Appalachian School of Law.

“I don’t ever want to defend someone like him,” Besen said.

The former Marine and police officer was among several students who tackled former classmate Peter Odighizuwa on the school’s front lawn after last week’s shootings.

When classes resume Wednesday at the school, Besen, 37, and others said they’ll return with mixed emotions.

“You just feel violated somehow,” Besen said Tuesday at a nearby restaurant.

“I’ve been having bad dreams,” said 42-year-old Mary Kilpatrick. “I guess there’s no more security in law schools than there is any other place.”

Kilpatrick said she and about 20 other students spent most of Monday in the school lounge, scrubbing blood stains from the rug and rearranging furniture.

“It’s therapeutic being back here; it keeps my mind off of things,” Kilpatrick said. v

“We’re going to have an unofficial class reunion the day he gets the chair,” said Matthew Harvey, who spent the week driving between memorial services with other students.

The school reopened Tuesday, holding a two-hour counseling session and discussing the class schedule for the rest of the semester.

Outside, faculty and students wrote good-bye messages in memorial books that will be given to victims’ families.

“I keep expecting Dean Sutin to come back,” said 22-year-old Melanie Page. “I just miss them all so much.”

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

The murder-suicide Friday at Broward Community College in South Florida was more than the third school shooting in the past week, according to a Marietta counselor and other psychologists.

The Florida shooting — coupled with Wednesday’s fatal shooting at a Virginia law school and the Tuesday shooting at a New York City high school — may indicate that pent-up stress from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may be pushing the emotionally vulnerable over the edge.

Put another way: We may be unraveling at the fringes.

The cause, though, is under scrutiny. Is Sept. 11 by itself pulling at the fabric of our nation, or was U.S. society beginning to fray before the attacks on New York and Washington?

‘One more straw’

Michael Popkin, president of Active Parent Publishers and a family counselor in Marietta, said stress is cumulative and that the Sept. 11 attacks “added a point or two to everybody.”

“It was just one more straw on the camel’s back,” Popkin said. “For people on the brink, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. People are striking back instead of coping with it.”

On Friday in Davie, Fla., a man shot and killed his ex-girlfriend before killing himself at Broward Community College, authorities said.

According to student and eyewitness Joe Fazio, “It looks like she was shot in the back of the neck. Then I heard the second gunshot. I turned around and the guy was laying on the ground.”

In Grundy, Va., on Wednesday, 43-year-old Peter Odighizuwa, a Nigerian student facing suspension, is charged with killing a dean, a professor and a student at the Appalachian School of Law. In New York, 18-year-old Vincent Rodriguez was arrested for allegedly shooting two classmates Tuesday because he believed they harassed his girlfriend, police say.

In December, a factory worker in Goshen, Ind., shot seven co-workers, then killed himself with a 12-gauge shotgun, several hours after he had quarreled with another employee over a female co-worker, police said.

Violence not new

Even before Sept. 11, internal violence strafed America’s psyche. The horrific shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 and the deadly 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City provided grim evidence of the country’s deep anxiety long before commercial airliners became diabolical weapons of mass destruction. v

Author and researcher James Garbarino, co-director of the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University, argues that recent shootings are more indicative of the country’s cultural path before terrorism planted itself here, notwithstanding more flag-waving, talk of reordered priorities and families reconstituting themselves.

“Looking beyond the ephemeral to the core is in order,” Garbarino wrote in an e-mail in response to an interview request. “Mostly, the violent events that made the news in the last week are part of ‘business as usual’ in violent America.”

In short, talk is cheap.

“Rarely does deep and enduring social and personal change come out of such declarations and resolutions,” Garbarino wrote.

Attitudes, not behavior

For instance, the heroic treatment of firefighters and police officers has not created a surge in applications nationwide. After the attacks, military recruiters reported more people interested in joining the service. Ultimately, however, it has not coincided with an increase in the number of contracts signed, a Defense Department spokesman said.

Researcher Robert Putnam, who has been cataloging the country’s civic disengagement (voting less, joining less, reading less, trusting less), wrote for next month’s issue of the American Prospect that “though the immediate effect of the attacks was clearly devastating, most Americans’ personal lives returned to normal relatively quickly.”

“Generally speaking,” Putnam wrote, “attitudes [such as trust and concern] have shifted more than behavior has. Will behavior follow attitudes? It’s an important question. And if the answer is no, then the blossom of civic-mindedness after Sept. 11 may be short-lived.”

‘Desk rage’ up at work

Still, there’s stress out there. The al-Qaida threat remains. Osama bin Laden’s still out there — or not, who knows? The markets haven’t gotten traction and layoffs are real.

At work, so-called “desk rage” is popping up because of the Sept. 11-induced recession, according to a study by Integra Realty Resources, a New York real estate advisory and appraisal firm.

“Stress over America’s slowing economy is showing up in the workplace,” Integra President Sean Hutchinson said. The survey reports that 10 percent of employees say they work in an atmosphere where physical violence has occurred because of stress, with 42 percent saying yelling and verbal abuse occurs in their workplace.

The ingredients are in place for more drug use, alcohol abuse and cigarette smoking, said George Mason University counseling expert Fred Bemak. Under the surface of everything we do is the threat of more terrorism — even if a Jan. 7-9 Gallup poll shows fewer Americans fear terrorism than they did just two months ago, Bemak said.

“We’re one event away from having psychological and social and family chaos.”

For children and adolescents, the uncertainty is particularly perplexing because some see their parents unable to cope, Bemak said.

The Augusta Chronicle (Georgia)

A white hitchhiker was run over by a black man who wanted him to pay gas money, authorities said Monday.

Jasper County Sheriff Billy Rowles, who investigated the 1998 case of James Byrd Jr. - a black man dragged to death by three white men - said race or revenge does not appear to be behind Friday’s killing.

Ken Bimbo Tillery, 44, went to a Jasper trailer park Friday night and asked for a ride home. Blake Little, 34, and three others offered him a lift in Mr. Little’s pickup after agreeing on a price of $5 for gas, police said.

The price increased to $50 by the time they arrived in Pineland, 130 miles northeast of Houston, police said. Mr. Tillery fled and was chased.

“A couple of the guys jump him and beat up on him, then the driver of the car runs over the guy,” Sheriff Rowles said.

Mr. Little was arrested Sunday on murder charges. The sheriff said all the men were suspected of drinking and smoking crack cocaine.

Two shot at law school released from hospital

GRUNDY, Va. -

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens said.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

School Dean L. Anthony Sutin, professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree. Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged.

Schizophrenic killer flees with young son

LITTLE ROCK -

Police and relatives searched Monday for a convicted killer diagnosed with schizophrenia and his 5-year-old son.

Police said Monday they have few leads on the whereabouts of Louis Peyton Sr., 35, of Maumelle, and his son Louis Peyton Jr., who goes by Luke.

Maumelle Police Chief Sam Williams said the father apparently picked up the boy from school Wednesday afternoon.

The boy’s mother, Amber Roach, of Ozark, has not lived with him and his father for the past few years. Luke and his father live with the boy’s grandfather, who said he was afraid his son’s medication was no longer working because a doctor told him it wears off after two days.

- Edited from wire reports

Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)

Gunman attacks Israeli civilians

JERUSALEM - A gunman opened fire on Israelis waiting for a bus on a busy, rain-slick downtown street this afternoon, wounding at least 20 people before he was shot dead by police, officials said. v

Palestinian security sources said the gunman was Saeed Ramadan, a member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, which is linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement.

Israeli authorities said they held Arafat and the Palestinian Authority responsible and a strong Israel response was likely.

A source in the Al Aqsa Brigades said the attack was revenge for the killing - widely attributed to Israel - of the group’s leader, Raed Karmi, in the West Bank town of Tulkarem.

The shooting came hours after Israeli commandos killed four members of the militant Islamic group Hamas in a raid on their hideout and explosives lab in Nablus in the West Bank. The Islamic militant group said in a leaflet it would respond with an “all-out war” against Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Program seeking cure for anthrax

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A coalition of scientists and technology companies is asking people to use their computers’ extra processing power to help search for a cure for anthrax.

The project follows similar efforts to hunt for extraterrestrial life and a cure for cancer. It is being launched today to help Oxford University researchers find ways to treat anthrax that can no longer be treated by antibiotics.

The project is based on the premise that the average personal computer uses between 13 percent and 18 percent of its processing power at any given time.

Participants download a screen-saver that runs whenever their computers have resources to spare, and uses that power to perform computations for the project.

The screen-saver can be downloaded at http://www.intel.com/cure.

Students hurt in shooting released

GRUNDY, Va. - Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree.

Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Chicago Tribune

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last Wednesday have been discharged from a hospital.

On Sunday, Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, left the Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said a hospital spokeswoman. A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded to good condition from fair.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree.

Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged with murder and attempted murder. He had recently flunked out of the law school, police said.

Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA)

Violent crime on college campuses has taken a disturbing jump, forcing many schools to make safety a concern along with grade inflation and the food in dining halls.

Even before a recent spate of shootings, new statistics showed that the murder rate on college campuses almost doubled in 2000. Burglary and drug arrests were up as well.

Even so, the 20 people killed that year represented a level close to the annual average for the past decade. The number was accentuated by a low murder rate in 1999 - 11.

Although the latest figures are a year old, they represent some of the most comprehensive statistics ever released on crime on American colleges and universities. They come at a time when campus safety has resurfaced as a national concern.

Within the past week, shootings on two campuses have left five dead - three at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., and two in a murder-suicide at Broward Community College near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“People forget that until 10 years ago people didn’t think crime happened on college campuses - an image that schools certainly wanted to project,” says S. Daniel Carter of Security on Campus, a nonprofit group that promotes university safety.

The most recent statistics on campus crime, released Friday, come from the US Department of Education (DOE). Though figures for 2001 won’t be out until next January, the 2000 numbers give a sharper picture of violence on college greens and in dorms - and offer administrators and parents reason for both concern and consolation.

Safe still

The overriding observation from the latest numbers might be how safe schools remain. Despite the increase in the homicide rate, authorities point out that there were about .14 on-campus murders per 100,000 students compared with a murder rate in the general population of about 5.5 per 100,000 people.

“One murder is too many, but looked at in comparison to national crime data, college campuses are relatively safe places,” says David Bergeron, chief of policy and budget development at DOE’s office of post-secondary education.

While murders loom large, other categories of campus crime are raising concern, too. Burglary, for instance, rose about 3 percent and arson was up 9 percent between 1999 and 2000. Liquor arrests grew 4 percent while drug arrests grew 10 percent.

Each year, colleges are required to release statistics on crime as a result of the Clery Act, passed by Congress 11 years ago. Until recently, however, the data was not collected and disseminated by the federal government.

Changes to the reporting act in 1998 required DOE to start doing so in 2000. Mr. Bergeron says 6,270 institutions reported their data this year (available on the department’s website at www.ope.ed.gov/security).

Some of this year’s biggest increases may not be due to worsening crime, but simply better reporting and tougher enforcement on campus. That’s probably the case, for instance, with liquor and drug arrests, according to Mr. Carter.

Yet private, nonprofit four-year schools - normally considered sanctuaries of security - do have some reasons for concern.

Take robberies and burglaries. Even though the increase and overall number of them was small, the jump was sharper at private four-year schools.

Robberies on those campuses grew from 501 in 1998 to 581 in 2000 - a 16 percent increase. Burglaries went up a similar amount.

“The overall numbers are small,” says Mr. Bergeron. “But when we looked at it year after year it raised concerns that students at those institutions may be being identified for their potential as easy money.”

Assaults have been rising at private schools as well. While the number of aggravated assaults at all institutions dropped about 5 percent, private four-year schools saw an 8 percent increase.

What crimes are down

Still, there was some good news in all the numbers. Manslaughter and forcible sex offenses were about the same or down slightly from the year before.

All categories of hate crimes were mostly unchanged and at fairly low levels. Illegal weapons possession arrests dropped about 16 percent, and auto theft fell as well.

Many of these numbers, however, remain difficult to verify. Carter, for instance, calls the sex-offense figures, which have remained steady since 1998, “ridiculously low” when compared with private victimization studies.

“We’re still working on getting accurate, stabilized crime statistics,” he says. “This is the second year ever for having them collected by the federal government. We’ve seen some dramatic improvements, but it’s still somewhat early.”

In a bid to prevent bad publicity, schools still play down crimes by disregarding reports, miscoding files, or even refusing to maintain a public crime log, Carter and others say. Forcible sex offenses, for instance, are sensitive and still underreported - particularly at smaller schools, according to Carter.

By contrast, larger state universities seem to be reporting more consistently in the past. “Most four-year state universities are not having the same types of shenanigans,” he says.

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

ABROAD

Two shooting victims released from hospital

GRUNDY, Va. - Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokesman Amy Stevens.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree.

Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Apt. fire kills woman, injures 8 firefighters

CHICAGO - A fire sent flames shooting out windows of a high-rise apartment building in Chicago early Monday, killing one woman and injuring eight firefighters.

The cause of the fire on the 14th floor of the 47-floor building was not immediately determined, Fire Department spokesman Patrick Howe said.

The victim was a woman in her 50s, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Investigators were still working to identify her.

Three firefighters were treated in a hospital for burns and upgraded to fair condition Monday afternoon, a Fire Department spokesman said. Five others were treated and released, he said.

SNAPSHOTS

U.S. warplanes struck an anti-aircraft artillery site in southern Iraq Monday in response to “hostile Iraqi threats” against pilots and aircrews patrolling the skies over the region, American defense officials reported Monday. The raid amounted to another in a long series of low-level skirmishes with Iraqi forces that have taken place since 1992, when the United States established “no-fly” zones over northern and southern Iraq after the Persian Gulf War.

A major electricity blackout hit at least five Brazilian states Monday, hampering commerce and industry in six key cities for more than two hours. A transmission line failure at the country’s Itaipu hydroelectric dam was to blame; the facility is the largest single source of power in Brazil.

Daily Press (Newport News, VA)

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, of Roanoke, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, of Clintwood, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, of Paducah, Ky., was upgraded from fair to good condition.

Stevens said all three were expected to make a full recovery.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales were slain in the shooting spree.

Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, a native of Nigeria, is charged with three counts of capital murder, three counts of attempted capital murder and six weapons counts in the shootings.

Police said Odighizuwa had recently flunked out of school.

The private law school, which opened five years ago in a renovated junior high school, has an enrollment of about 200 students.

Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee)

Two students released from hospital

KINGSPORT - Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, of Paducah, Ky., was upgraded from fair to good condition.

Stevens said all three were expected to make a full recovery.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales were slain in the shooting spree.

Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, a native of Nigeria, is charged with three counts of capital murder, three counts of attempted capital murder and six weapons counts in the shootings. Police said Odighizuwa had recently flunked out of school.

The private law school, which opened five years ago in a renovated junior high school, has an enrollment of about 200 students.

Lexington Herald Leader (Kentucky)

Two Lexington men were killed yesterday morning when the vehicle in which they were riding spun out of control on Interstate 75 and was hit by a tractor-trailer. At 2:50 a.m., a Geo Tracker attempted to merge onto I-75 at the Corinth interchange when the driver lost control and spun into the path of the tractor-trailer. The driver, Ty L. Cruse, 24, and a passenger in the back seat, John R. Wilkinson, 25, both of Lexington, were pronounced dead at the scene. A front-seat passenger, Adel S. Rayan, of Lexington, was taken to the University of Cincinnati Hospital. The driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured. Police are still investigating. Kentucky State Police said the front-seat occupants were wearing seat belts. Investigators do not know whether alcohol was a factor.

Grundy, Va.

2 law school shooting victims released: Two victims injured in a shooting at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., last week were released from the hospital on Sunday. Rebecca Brown, 38, of Roanoke, Va., and Martha Madeline Short, 37, of Clintwood, Va., were discharged from the Wellmont-Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport. A third victim, Stacey Beans, 22, of Paducah, has been upgraded to good condition at the Wellmont-Bristol Regional Medical Center. Beans, a graduate of Berea College, is expected to make a full recovery. Three others—the school’s dean, a professor and another student—were killed in the shooting. Peter Odighizuwa, a former student who had flunked out, has been charged with murder and other offenses.

Newsday (New York)

Wounded Students Improve

Two students wounded last week in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens. A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, Professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain. Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged with murder and attempted murder. Police said he had recently flunked out of school.

11 Slain in Jammu-Kashmir

Eleven members of a Muslim family, including eight children, were killed when gunmen barged into their house in India’s rebellion-torn Jammu and Kashmir state yesterday and opened fire, police said.

Though police initially blamed militants fighting Indian rule in India’s only Muslim-majority state, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said the deaths in Poonch district were the result of a local feud.

Three people were arrested on the basis of information provided by local people, a Jammu police official said. They implicated a former police officer who had deserted a year ago.

None of the guerrilla groups fighting Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

WASHINGTON—The Federal Trade Commission plans to propose today new rules for reducing the annoyance of unwanted telephone solicitations as it begins to push for the establishment of a national “do-not-call” registry.

With a registry, people could make a single call to get their names removed from many telemarketing lists. The agency is also expected to propose that telemarketers be barred from blocking any identifying information from caller-ID equipment so people could know who is calling.

If approved, the rules could be in place in a year. But first they would be subject to public comment, and the Direct Marketing Association has signaled its strong opposition.

FTC Chairman Timothy Muris says he envisions a toll-free number that people could call to opt out of solicitation lists.

Ex-con killer, son, missing

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.—Police and relatives searched yesterday for a convicted killer diagnosed with schizophrenia and his 5-year-old son.

Maumelle Police Chief Sam Williams said Louis Peyton Sr., 35, of Maumelle apparently picked up his son, Louis Peyton Jr., who goes by Luke, from school Wednesday afternoon and neither has been seen since.

The boy’s mother, Amber Roach of Ozark, has not lived with him and his father for the last few years. The boy and his father live with Fred Peyton, the boy’s grandfather and Louis Peyton Sr.’s father.

In 1989, Louis Peyton was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of a friend. He served two years of a 10-year sentence before he was paroled to a mental health facility. Psychiatric evaluations after the killing led to his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.

Least-affordable housing

SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—San Francisco no longer tops the list for least-affordable housing in the nation, a distinction that now falls an hour and a half to the south to Santa Cruz.

That result comes from the National Association of Home Builders, which compiles the list each year by comparing family incomes and home prices for metropolitan areas around the country. The latest survey is based on third-quarter numbers for 2001.

The Santa Cruz metro area’s median income is $65,000, and the median home price is $420,000, up $5,000 from the previous quarterly survey.

San Francisco dropped to second, as its median home price fell $10,000 to $520,000, still the most expensive median home price in the country.

In fact, nine of the 10 least-affordable markets in the nation are in California.

Rampage victims recover

GRUNDY, Va.—Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law last week that left three people dead have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)

Two of the three students wounded last week in a shooting at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy have been discharged from the hospital.

Rebecca Claire Brown, 38, of Roanoke, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, of Grundy, were released from Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., on Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday.

The third wounded student, Stacey Beans, 22, of Paducah, Ky., remains at Bristol Regional Medical Center in fair condition, according to hospital officials.

Brown was shot in the abdomen and arm, Short was shot in the back, and Beans, initially identified by authorities as Stacy Bean of Berea, Ky., was shot in the chest.

All are expected to recover.

The three women were on the first floor of the law school last Wednesday when a gunman shot them. Three other people - the law school’s dean, a professor and a student - were killed in the shooting rampage.

A student who had been dismissed for poor grades has been charged with three counts of capital murder and three counts of attempted capital murder.

The law school, closed since the shootings, is scheduled to reopen today when the faculty, staff and students gather for a “town hall” meeting to discuss plans for the remainder of the semester.

Regular classes will resume tomorrow.

Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)

Charlotte Varney, the secretary of Buchanan First Presbyterian Church, is not a member of the church. Articles about the shooting at the Appalachian School of Law, which appeared Friday and Sunday, indicated she was.

* * *

A headline on a story on farm policy in yesterday’s Metro Business section misspelled the word sowing.

Roanoke Times & World News (Roanoke, VA)

Two women who were injured in Wednesday’s shooting at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy have been released from the hospital, and a third victim’s condition has been upgraded, officials said.

Rebecca Clair Brown of Roanoke and Martha Madeline Short of Clintwood were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., spokeswoman Amy Stevens said.

Brown, 38, spent many years working as a licensed respiratory therapist before entering law school last year. Short, 37, earned a master’s degree in urban planning from Virginia Tech and worked for the Mount Rogers Planning District Commission in Marion. She later spent six years as a grants writer for the town of Wytheville.

Stacey Bean, 22, of Paducah, Ky., has been upgraded to good condition at Wellmont Bristol Regional Medical Center.

The Seattle Times

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage last week at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., have been released from a hospital. A third student was upgraded from fair to good condition.

Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners yesterday that an electronic ear implant has partially restored his hearing. Limbaugh went deaf last year because of an autoimmune inner-ear disease.

People

Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is out of office, but he won’t be leaving the public stage soon. His first book, focusing on management principles, is due out this summer, and he’s scheduled to appear in a Super Bowl television ad thanking Americans for helping New York after the terrorist attacks.

St. Petersburg Times (Florida)

Two students wounded in a shooting rampage at Appalachian School of Law last week have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, and Martha Madeline Short, 37, were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, was upgraded from fair to good condition.

Stevens said all three were expected to make a full recovery.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales, 33, were slain in the spree.

Student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, has been charged with murder and attempted murder. Police said he had recently flunked out of school.

University Wire

Lake Worth, Fla. Deming, N.M. Mount Morris Township, Mich. Does anyone know what these American towns have in common?

You should.

Each was the site of school gun violence that resulted in a loss of life during the past three years.

Who really cares?

You should.

The recent tragedy at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., should sicken and frighten us all. A dean, a professor and a student are dead and three others are wounded after a suspended student opened fire there with a semiautomatic handgun last Wednesday.

Does it need to be said that this incident could just as easily have happened at the University of Pennsylvania? Surely, with our Ivy League snobbery, we understand that such a tragedy, if anything, is more likely at a place like Penn: “If a student at the Appalachian School of Law could care so much about his education, clearly a Penn student…”

Nonetheless, what’s even more sickening and frightening is the way in which we have simply come to accept gun violence—including and especially gun violence at schools—as a part of modern American society. Columbine shocked us, both in its scope and its efficiency. But since then, school shootings seem prosaic. Like a bad storm, we expect to get one every few months. Then—like after a bad storm—we clean up the mess and forget about it.

Does anyone remember the names of three California towns—Oxnard, Santee and El Cajon? These were some of the bad storms of 2001.

I will admit that in my position it’s very easy to paint oneself as the crusading moralist, blasting one’s peers for their contemptible apathy. No doubt most of you are apathetic, and that is contemptible, but to be perfectly honest I’m not much for crusading or morality. Adherence to either is much less glamorous in practice than in thought.

But gun violence is an issue important enough to demand the attention and energy of everyone—including the apathetic. We are all aware of the facts. “A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to kill a family member or friend than it is to be used against an intruder.” “On average, 10 children a day are killed in the US by guns.” And my personal favorite: “57 percent of handguns are stored unlocked, and 55 percent are kept loaded. 30 percent of handgun owners keep their guns unlocked and loaded.”

Many of us are cognizant of the “American cowboy” image abroad, too. In 1996, there were 9,390 handgun deaths in the U.S., compared to only 30 in Great Britain, 15 in Japan and two in New Zealand.

Some of us might even know that studies show a strong correlation between guns and the incidence of suicide and domestic abuse.

Has there ever before been such an extensive body of incontrovertible evidence or a people so reluctant to take action?

Or counterarguments so stupid?

I’ve seen some strange headlines the past week and a half: “Pres. Bush Chokes on Pretzel” and “Punxsutawney Phil a Terrorist Target?” But show me “Kung Fu Master Kills [insert any number greater than one]” or even “Knife-wielding Maniac Kills [insert any number greater than two]” and I’ll rethink. Until then, I’m decided: Guns kill people a hell of a lot better than people do.

It’s not that I’m unsympathetic to the Constitutional argument. You show me a member of a well-regulated militia that is popularly recognized to be necessary to the security of our free state, and I would gladly vote to allow him to have his pistol or rifle for use against our government in the event that they attack us with their bombers and tanks.

The problem of gun violence in schools merely highlights a larger problem in our country’s gun laws. Right now, most states don’t even require a permit to purchase either handguns, rifles or shotguns. Nor do they mandate registration or licensing. We are so far from where we need to be.

Allowing ourselves to grow accustomed to school gun violence—and all gun violence, for that matter—will not fix this problem. It won’t just go away. Our moral outrage, if kept to ourselves, will do nothing.

Instead, Americans favoring better gun control must pledge their support for organizations, like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and the Anti-Gun Coalition of America, and hold state lawmakers accountable for their votes on current legislation aimed at closing the so-called “gun show loophole” that allows unlicensed gun sellers to circumvent required background checks.

Let’s stop being the silent majority.

Who really cares about gun control and the safety of our schools?

We do.

The Washington Times

MENINGITIS KILLS PRISON INMATE

RICHMOND - A Lunenburg Correctional Center inmate died from bacterial meningitis two days after he was scheduled to be paroled, the Department of Corrections announced yesterday.

James Ball, 45, of Hampton died last Thursday, spokesman Larry Traylor said.

No one else at the 1,100-inmate prison near Victoria has come down with symptoms, Mr. Traylor said. All inmates and staff at the prison who came into contact with Ball were given Cipro, a powerful antibiotic.

Ball became so ill that he was sent to a hospital in South Hill on Jan. 3 and then transferred to the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals in Richmond later that day, he said.

Ball had been in prison off and on since 1991 for crimes including maiming, use of a firearm in a felony, attempted arson and parole violations, Mr. Traylor said. He was to have been paroled Jan. 15.

POLICE: FIRE THAT CAUSED DEATH WAS ACCIDENTAL

MCLEAN - The fire that killed a man at a McLean home appears to have been an accident, Fairfax County police said.

A man checking on the welfare of his 32-year-old son at 1612 Simmons Drive on Sunday found a body inside the residence. Police said the fire might have been caused by a space heater.

The body still has not been identified, and the cause of death remains unknown. Police said an autopsy will be performed.

NO BOND FOR MAN HELD IN SHOOTING AT MOTEL

ARLINGTON - A Marine Corps sergeant from Fort Knox, Ky., has been arrested and charged in the fatal shootings of his wife, his 5-year-old daughter and his wife’s friend, police said yesterday.

Arlington County police Sgt. Jim Daly said a motel guest heard a woman scream Sunday night at the Cherry Blossom TraveLodge. Motel workers called police, and officers who responded at 8:15 p.m. found one woman dead in one room and another woman and the girl with gunshot wounds in another room, Daly said.

The second woman was pronounced dead at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, and the girl was transported to Washington Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival, Sgt. Daly said.

Killed in the shooting were the man’s wife, Maya Lajuan Davidson Cooper, 22; Marie Gault, 20; and Desiree Cooper, 5. All three were from Arlington. It is not clear which woman was in which room.

Sgt. Zachary Cooper Sr. of Fort Knox, Ky., was charged with one count of murder and is being held without bond in the Arlington County Detention Center. The investigation is continuing.

Investigators did not have a motive for the shooting.

The three slayings were more than Arlington had in all of 2001, when the county had two homicides, Sgt. Daly said.

It was the second triple homicide in the history of the county. The first was in 1995, Sgt. Daly said.

TWO RAMPAGE SURVIVORS RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL

GRUNDY - Two students wounded in last week’s shooting rampage at the Appalachian School of Law have been released from a hospital.

Rebecca Brown, 38, of Roanoke and Martha Madeline Short, 37, of Clintwood were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., according to a hospital spokeswoman.

A third student, Stacey Beans, 22, of Paducah, Ky., was upgraded from fair to good condition, she said. All three were expected to make a full recovery, she said.

The school’s dean, L. Anthony Sutin, professor Thomas Blackwell and student Angela Dales were slain in the shooting spree.

Dismissed student Peter Odighizuwa, 43, a native of Nigeria, is charged with three counts of capital murder, three counts of attempted capital murder and six weapons counts in the shootings. Police said Mr. Odighizuwa recently had flunked out of school.

The private law school, which opened five years ago in a renovated junior high school, has an enrollment of about 200 students.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

Stacey Beans plans to be home in a couple of days to recuperate before returning later this semester to the Virginia law school where she was shot last week, her mother said.

“It’s been positive just watching her,” Bobbie Wrinkle said of her daughter who was released from Wellmont Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, Tenn.

Two other students injured Rebecca Brown, 38, of Roanoke, Va., and Martha Madeline Short, 37, of Clintwood, Va., were discharged Sunday from Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, Tenn., said hospital spokeswoman Amy Stevens.

Beans, a 1997 Paducah Tilghman High School graduate, was shot once in the chest during a shooting rampage at Appalachian School of Law last Wednesday in Grundy, Va. The dean, a professor and a student were killed.

Beans has remained positive, her mother Bobbie Wrinkle said. “She’s been a real trouper,” she said. “I am proud of her.”

Classes at the law school are scheduled to resume this week. Beans will recuperate in Paducah before returning to school as soon as she can, Wrinkle said.

A couple of her professors who visited Beans over the weekend offered to provide tutoring if needed. Beans was one of the top students at the school, Wrinkle said. “She’s looking forward to going back to law school,” she said.

Beans still plans to do an internship in May with Circuit Judge Bill Cunningham, whose circuit includes Caldwell, Livingston, Lyon and Trigg counties.

The Associated Press State & Local Wire

Ted Besen glares over the crumbs of his sandwich, still angry about the former classmate who police say killed his school’s dean, a professor and another student in a shooting that shattered the peace of this tiny coal town.

“You just feel violated somehow,” Besen, 37, said Tuesday at a restaurant near the Appalachian School of Law. The former Marine and police officer was one of several students who charged Peter Odighizuwa, tackling him on the school’s front lawn, after the shootings last week.

When classes resume Wednesday at the Appalachian School of Law, Besen and others said they’ll return with mixed emotions. For certain, they said, nothing will be the same. v

“I’ve been having bad dreams,” said Mary Kilpatrick, 42, a third-year student from Kingsport, Tenn. “I guess there’s no more security in law schools than there is any other place.”

Odighizuwa, 43, is accused of gunning down Dean L. Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas F. Blackwell, 41, in their offices last Wednesday, and of opening fire in the school lounge, killing Angela Dales, 33, and injuring three others, police said. v

Odighizuwa, a former teacher from Dayton, Ohio, had recently learned he’d flunked out of school for the second time. v

Authorities have charged him with three counts of capital murder, three counts of attempted capital murder and six weapons charges. Prosecutor Sheila Tolliver is seeking the death penalty.

“We’re going to have an unofficial class reunion the day he gets the chair,” said Matthew Harvey, 24, who spent the week driving between memorial services with other students.

Kilpatrick said she and about 20 other students spent most of Monday in the school lounge, scrubbing out blood stains in the rug and rearranging furniture.

“It’s therapeutic being back here; it keeps my mind off of things,” Kilpatrick said. v

The school reopened on Tuesday, holding a two-hour counseling session and discussing the class schedule for the rest of the semester. President Lucius Ellsworth announced that Marquette University Professor Jeffrey Kinsler has been hired to take over Sutin’s class on constitutional law.

Kinsler, who was planning to join the law school staff in the fall, will share teaching duties with both schools this semester, Ellsworth said.

Outside, faculty and students wrote good-bye messages in memorial books that will eventually be given to the victims’ families. They stepped out on the school’s front steps and released yellow and green balloons, watching quietly as the balloons rose above the hills and disappeared into a clear blue sky.

“I keep expecting Dean Sutin to come back,” said Melanie Page, 22. “I just miss them all so much.”

Wounded students Rebecca Brown, 38, of Roanoke and Martha Madeline Short, 37, of Grundy both have been released from the hospital. Stacey Beans, 22, of Berea, Ky., was discharged from Wellmont Bristol Regional Medical Center Tuesday. All three plan to spend time with family before returning to school.

But the memories will last forever.

Besen said he can still hear the shrieks of fleeing students when gunfire first ripped through the school. His wife had applied to Appalachian Law School in hopes of also pursuing a legal education, but now it’s likely they’ll move away after he graduates in June.

Besen said he was thinking of working as a defense attorney when he applied to the Appalachian School of Law. But Odighizuwa has changed his mind.

“I don’t ever want to defend someone like him.”