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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2000)
PAXTON (AP) - A farmer talking to his father-in-law on a cell phone was shot and killed Monday, and the Nebraska State Patrol believes the assailant is the same man who wounded two police officers this weekend. Keith County Attorney Deborah Gilg said the victim was Robert Sedlacek, 48. Authorities initiated a manhunt Monday night for Charles Lannis Moses Jr., the suspect in the three shoot ings. Sedlacek had gone to a part of his farm that had an unoccupied house and outbuildings at about 3:15 CST, Gilg said. He noticed unusual tire tracks around the buildings. His father-in-law told Gilg they were speaking on die cell phone when Sedlacek expressed surprise at some thing. Then die phone went dead. Gilg declined to say how many shots were fired. Also found at the farm near Paxton was a 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass, stolen earlier from a farm near Dickens. Paxton is about 12 miles west of Sutherland, where the two police offi cers were shot Saturday night Gov. Mike Johanns and Nebraska State Patrol Col. Tom Nesbitt on Monday evening urged Nebraskans to be cautious. Nesbitt believes-the suspect, Charles Lannis Moses Jr., stole Sedlacek’s blue 2000 Chevy SKI pick up with Nebraska farm license plate 68 999 and could still be in the area. Nesbitt advised Nebraskans to remove keys from parked cars, lock their doors and report any sightings of Moses, but not approach him. “We think we are dealing with someone who is not only dangerous, but knows how to deal with law enforcement,” Johanns said. Moses has a history of fleeing police in Texas and has been character ized as a survivalist. Two airplanes, a helicopter and more than 60 law enforcement officers were combing western Nebraska Monday night for Moses, wanted in Nebraska for attempted first-degree murder in Saturday night’s encounter, U We think we are dealing with someone who is not only dangerous, but knows how to deal with law enforcement.” Governor Mike Johanns and in Texas for violating probation and possessing explosives. Nesbitt acknowledged that the western Nebraskan terrain, filled with canyons, vacant roads and desolate areas combined with the descending nightfall, would make searching diffi cult. Johanns pledged to use all state resources possible to find Moses. Nesbitt said Moses was sighted sev eral times in the area Monday. He believes Moses has been staying on abandoned farmsteads there. Moses’ pickup truck, with several bullet holes, was found Monday on a farm southwest of Dickens in Lincoln County, about 24 miles south of where he first encountered police in western Nebraska, police said. The farm owner’s stolen 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass was found at the Paxton murder scene, Nesbitt said In a pickup truck with no tail lights, Moses, 31, outgunned and outran about two dozen law enforcement officers late Saturday on a chase through the dark, icy roads of rural Nebraska near Sutherland, which is between North Platte and Ogallala. One officer was shot in the stom ach, another was shot in the hand The chase began after a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy tried to arrest Moses on the Texas warrants. Moses pulled a handgun, which the deputy wrestled away, then fled in his truck. Moses is wanted in Nebraska for attempted first-degree murder, using a firearm to commit a felony and resist ing arrest. Two Columbine students found dead LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) - Two Columbine High sweethearts were found dead early Monday after a shooting at a sandwich shop within sight of their school, compounding the heartbreak in the community that suffered the worst school shooting in U.S. history. The bodies of Nicholas Kunselman, 15, and Stephanie Hart, 16, were discovered inside the Subway shop where Kunselman worked. Investigators did not disclose a motive but ruled out murder-suicide. Jefferson County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Davis said the cause of death had not been determined, and he said he did not know whether a weapon had been found. Investigators were reviewing a videotape from a surveillance camera inside the restau rant. The shooting was the latest in a string of tragedies that have hit the Denver suburb since teen-age gun men Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine on April 20 and then com mitted suicide. Classes remained in session Monday, but at least 100 students stayed away.. At least 25 counselors were kept busy most of the day, said Betty Fitzpatrick, health services director for the school district. “It reminds me of everything. It’s just like flashbacks,” said Nathan Vanderau, an 18-year-old senior who knew some of the victims of last year’s shooting, as well as Monday’s victims, and is in counseling. Among the other incidents that have added to the unease in the com munity: ■ In October, the mother of a stu dent partially paralyzed in the mas sacre shot herself to death. ■ On Feb. 1, the body of an 11 year-old boy was found in a trash bin within blocks of the school. No arrests have been made. ■ Last week, a Florida man plead ed guilty in Denver to sending a Columbine student an Internet mes sage threatening to finish the mas sacre. Friends said Hart enjoyed sports but was quiet and didn’t go out much except to stop by the sub shop to see Kunselman. He had worked at the sub shop for only a month but had won the manager’s confidence and often was assigned to close the restaurant at 10 p.m., Hodack said. A Subway employee driving past the store noticed a light inside the store about 1 a.m. Because the busi ness was supposed to be closed, the woman stopped, went inside and dis covered the bodies. Windy Mostly cloudy high 58, low 25 high 42, low 25 i Georgia tornadoes kill at least 22 people CAMILLA, Ga. (AP) - Tornadoes descended on rural Georgia in the middle of the night Monday, ripping people from their beds and piling up mobile homes. At least 22 people were killed and more than 100 were hurt. Dozens of houses and mobile homes in the southwest Georgia town of Camilla were flattened, their metal and siding mangled and strewn across yards and streets. “All you heard was a roar, woo woo-woo,” said Johnny Jones, whose mobile home south of Camilla was thrown on its side. He said he freed his 14-year-old son, who was pinned under a washing machine', and they crawled out a window. “All I could see was that every thing was demolished. People were hollering and crying, ‘Where’s my child?”’ he said. The tornadoes struck shortly after midnight as a line of thunderstorms rumbled through the Southeast, scar ring property from Arkansas to Georgia. Authorities in Camilla and sur rounding Mitchell County said two separate twisters cut a 1.5-mile-wide, 10-mile-long path through the county. “It hit the impoverished and the affluent,” said Liz McQueen, a Red Cross volunteer who was working at a temporary morgue near Camilla. Fourteen people died in Mitchell County, a primarily rural area dotted with cotton and peanut farms, chick en processing plants, textile factories and a state prison. Gov. Roy Barnes, who flew over the area to assess the damage, declared Mitchell and three other counties disaster areas. The twisters were the deadliest in Georgia since 1936, when 203 people were killed by tornadoes in I TA _ • 1 Editor: Josh Funk — -g Ud-lly -g Managing Editor: Lindsay Young [V 1 /^A I ^ Associate News Editor: Diane Broderick llCUl dolvdl 1 Associa‘e News Editor: Dane Stickney Opinion Editor: J.J. Harder Sports Editor: Sam McKewon A&E Editor: Sarah Baker Questions? Comments? Copy Desk Co-Chief: Jen Walker Ask for the appropriate section editor at (402) 472-2588 Copy Desk Co-Chief: Josh Krauter - ore-maildndunl.edu. _ M‘ke Warren Design Co-Chief: Tim Karstens * Fax number: (402)472-1761 Design Co-Chief: Diane Broderick World Wide Web: www.dailvneb.com Art Director: Melanie Falk ITie Daily Nebraskan (LISPS 144-080) is published bv the UNL Publications Board, Web Editor: Gregg Steams Nebraska Union 20,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday Asst. Web Editor: Jewel Mlriarik during thfacademic year; wegl^dunn^^nwwr^ssions.The publicflas access Gene ral Manager: Daniel Shattil Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan Publications Board Jessica Hofmann. by calling Chairwoman: (402)477-0527 _ (402)472-25 Professional Adviser: Don Walton, _ _ „ Subscnptions.are_$60 le year, . (402)471-7248 ostma^ter Sendad atlSM?0’ 14°° Advertising Manager: Nick Ptuisch ALL MATERIALCOPYRIGHTNOO . , . .(402)472-2589 THE DAILY NEBRASKAN SS H All I could see was that everything was demolished. People were hollering and crying, ‘Where’s my child? ’ ” Johnny Jones resident Gainesville, northeast of Atlanta. The winds snatched up the trailer where Janet and James Madeiras and their son Travis, 12, had been sleep ing, tossing them out and knocking the trailer on top of them. James Madeiras, 60, said they had just seconds to react. “The moment I heard it, the bed dropped down and the walls came tumbling down on top of us,” he said. I was saying, Oh my God! and started digging,” Janet Madeiras said. “When I got outside and looked around, everything was gone. You could hear moaning and crying.” The family escaped without major injuries and moved into a shel ter with several neighbors. Families of the injured and miss ing jammed phone lines and scram bled into hospitals to find their loved ones. There were so many injuries, people were sent to hospitals as far away as Tallahassee, Fla. Mitchell County Hospital, with only 33 beds, was swamped with more than 120 injured people early Monday. The storms had knocked out power, and the small staff of doctors and nurses worked under backup power from a generator, trying to treat the wounded and find other hospitals to handle the overflow. At Archbold Memorial Hospital in Thomasville, a lost 4-year-old girl was at first too terrified to tell doctors her name. Her mother hadn’t been found Monday afternoon. A preliminary assessment found 198 structures destroyed and more than 160 damaged, said Ed Tynes, supervisor of a Red Cross shelter in the gymnasium of the Mitchell County Middle School. More than 5,000 people were without pow'er. ■ South Carolina Governor suggests moving flag from top of Statehouse dome COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Gov. JinTHodges introduced his plan Monday for moving the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome, saying it should be placed at a Confederate monument on die Capitol’s grounds. “It is clear that an overwhelming majority of South Carolinians want to bring closure to this issue,” Hodges told reporters. Even before the announcement, the South Carolina Council of Conservative Citizens called Hodges a liar, saying he promised during his campaign that he would stay neutral (Hi die issue. State Sen. John Land, who will sponsor Hodges’ proposal, acknowledged he didn’t have the votes to cut off a threatened fili buster by opponents. Only the Legislature can remove the flag from the dome. ■ Jerusalem Arafat sets own Palestinian statehood declaration deadline JERUSALEM (AP) - On the day Israeli and Palestinian negotiators missed an important target date on the road to peace, Yasser Arafat set a dead line of his own - a declaration of Palestinian statehood by September, with or without Israel’s blessing. A resolution passed Sunday night by Arafat and his Fatah Revolutionary Council, a gathering of 132 top loyal ists, said the Palestinians are entitled to statehood this year, no later than September. September is the deadline for a peace treaty with Israel that would define the terms of Palestinian state hood. However, talks have bogged down, raising questions about whether an agreement is possible by the dead line. ) ■ Maryland Satellite begins yearlong orbit, study of Eros asteroid ' LAUREL, Md. (AP) - With near flawless precision, a spacecraft slipped into orbit around the asteroid Eros, becoming the first manmade satellite of an asteroid. The craft now starts a yearlong close-up study of the space rock, hop ing to determine its origins and help scientists protect Earth from boulders from outer space. Project scientist Andrew Cheng said the success thrilled scientists eager to get an unprecedented close up view of an asteroid and gather data with five different instruments. “Today may be Valentine’s Day for most people, but it’s Christmas Eve for me, and all the presents are piled about, waiting to be opened,” said Cheng. ■ Missouri Man suspected of shooting woman, four children in home WARRENSBURG, Mo. (AP) - A woman and four children were found., shot to death at their home Monday morning and a man was taken into custody. An infant and a 3-year-old girl also were shot and were taken to a hospital, said Pat Leighter, a spokeswoman for the Johnson County Sheriff’s office. The conditions of the tWo girls were not released. The dead and the two wounded children were all family members, Leighter said. , “They were shot with some type of rifle,” Leighter said. She would not say if the man was related to the others. He was not injured.