News Digest
Page 2 Daily Nebraskan Wednesday, March 7,2001
Latest school gunman fired randomly
■The 15-year-old alleged shooter told friends about his
plans before opening fire at Santana High School, but no
one reported the threat
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SANTEE, Calif. - The “angry young man” accused of
killing two fellow students fired randomly and still had eight
bullets in his gun when police cornered him in a school
bathroom, investigators said Tuesday.
Friends said the scrawny 15-year-old freshman accused
in the nation's latest high school bloodbath talked about his
plans over the weekend, and they took him seriously
enoughto him down before classes started Monday.
One adult even warned Charles Andrew “Andy”
Williams not to commit “a Columbine,” and tried to call the
boy’s father but didn’t follow through- But no one is known
to have reported the threats that preceded Monday’s attack
that also wounded 13 at Santana High in Santee, Calif.
During a news conference, authorities said the carnage
could have been much worse if not for the swift actions of a
sheriff’s deputy and an off-duty police officer who was on
campus to register his child in the school.
When Williams surrendered, his .22-caliber revolver
was fully loaded with eight rounds, its hammer cocked,
investigators said. He came to school with as many as 40
rounds, investigators said.
“I do believe that if it had not been for the conduct of the
people involved... it would have been even worse," Sheriff
Bill Kolender said.
The boy fired indiscriminately, Sheriff’s Ll Jerry Lewis
said. Most of the students hit were struck as they fled down
a hallway between the school’s library and administration
office.
Authorities said the boy was cooperating in interviews,
but they could not shed further light on his possible
motives.
Witnesses “all said he was mad at something. We don’t
know if he was mad at the school, mad at students, mad at
life, mad at home,” Lewis said. “He was an angry young
man.”
Although school was closed Tuesday, students, parents
and others gathered outside to place flowers at a makeshift
memorial site and share their grief The school is to reopen
today to give students a chance to talk about Monday’s
shooting.
One victim, 18-year-old Barry Gibson, was released
from a hospital Tuesday.
Gibson told reporters he was hanging out with friends
David McNew/Newsmakers
Students of Santana High School pray Tuesday at a makeshift memorial following a shooting rampage at their school, killing two and wounding
13 others Monday in Santee, Calif.The alleged gunman, 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams, a student at the school, was arrested at the scene
and is expected to be charged as an adult for murder.
after economics class when he heard shooting coming from
inside a nearby bathroom.
“I am pretty sure everyone, including myself, thought
they were firecrackers,” Gibson said as he hobbled on
crutches at a community meeting.
As authorities dug into the case, the first question for
many was: How could so many people see the warning
signs and fail to act?
“That’s going to be haunting me for a long time,” said
Chris Reynolds, 29, who heard the threats and didn’t report
them.
Williams, held in a juvenile facility Tuesday, will be
charged as an adult with murder, assault with a deadly
weapon and gun possession, District Attorney Paul Pfingst
said. The adult prosecution is mandatory under a ballot
measure approved last year, and the boy could face multiple
life terms. Arraignment was set for Wednesday.
Pfingst said the gun belonged to Williams’ father,
Charles, a lab technician at the Naval Medical Center-San
Diego, since July. It had been stored in a locked cabinet,
investigators said.
Bryan Zuckor, 14, and 17-year-old Randy Gordon were
killed; 11 other students and two adults - a student teacher
and a campus security worker - were wounded. The adults
and three students remain hospitalized in good or fair con
dition.
Putin may face choice
in no-confidence vote
■ Russia's president will have to decide
whether to keep parliament or Cabinet
members if the motion passes.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW - In an unlikely alliance, pro
Kremlin and opposition lawmakers forged
ahead Tuesday with a proposal that could
force President Vladimir Putin to choose
between firing his Cabinet or dissolving par
liament
The leading members of the State
Duma, the lower house of parliament,
scheduled a vote on a motion of no confi
dence in the Cabinet for March 14,
Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov
told reporters.
If the motion is passed twice within
three months, Putin must fire Prime
Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and his minis
ters or disband parliament, prompting early
elections.
The discussion left many Russians won
dering what political upheavals were in
store after a year of relative calm since Putin
entered office.
“One gets the impression that those in
power are tired of the political calm and
have decided to get down to business,” the
daily Izvestia commented.
The Communists proposed a no-confi
dence vote last month, saying they were
motivated by the Cabinet’s failure to
improve the nation’s living standards.
Few thought the measure stood any
chance until Monday, when legislators from
the pro-Kremlin Unity party announced
they would support it - prompting many to
conclude the move had Putin’s backing.
Unity members met Tuesday to decide
how the party would vote but apparently
failed to reach an agreement
Unity leader Boris Gryzlov said a deci
sion would be made the day before the no
confidence vote.
Meanwhile, Gennady Raikov, the leader
of another pro-Putin group of legislators,
dismissed the no-confidence bid as a mis
guided “political game” and said his faction
would likely vote against it
Earlier, Gryzlov said he favored early
elections that he predicted would give his
party even more seats. But many politicians
and analysts say the Kremlin would not
benefit from new elections.
Fight for custody ensues
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - An Arkansas
judge Tuesday nullified the adoption of
twin 8-month-old girls caught up in an
international custody battle.
The girls were adopted in Arkansas on
Dec. 22 by a British couple, setting off a
dispute with an American couple who
had also tried to adopt the children
through the same Internet broker.
Pulaski County Probate Judge Mackie
Pierce said Tuesday that neither the
British couple nor the American birth
mother, who put them up for adoption,
met Arkansas’ 30-day residency require
ment. As a result, the Arkansas courts had
no right to grant the adoption, Pierce
said.
Pierce also recommended to British
courts that the children be returned to
the United States for further proceedings
on who should get custody.
Richard and Vickie Allen of Highland,
Calif., say they paid a $6,000 fee to a San
Diego-based Internet adoption broker.
They say they had custody of the girls for
nearly two months and were in the
process of legally adopting them when
the children were taken to Arkansas by
TrandaWecker, the twins’ birth mother.
Alan and Judith Kilshaw of Wales say
they paid $12,000 for the same children
and adopted them from Wecker in Little
Rock.
Both the Allens and Kilshaws, as well
as the girls' now-separated biological
parents, Tranda and Aaron Wecker. are
seeking custody of the girls. The girls are
now in foster care in Britain.
The judge was ruling on a motion
from the Allens, who had sought to nulli
fy the Kilshaws’ adoption. The judge said
the Allens did not have standing to ask
that the adoption be voided, but that,
based on his own review of the case, he
had decided to nullify the adoption.
Pierce’s order said Tranda Wecker had
the right to take the children from the
Allens but was required to live in
Arkansas for 30 days before putting the
children up for adoption there.
“An adoption order is fatally defective
where neither... the prospective adoptive
parents nor the minors sought to be
adopted were residents of the county,”
Pierce wrote. “If Tranda Wecker engaged
in any fraud or deception regarding her
residency, this court will not reward this
bad conduct.”
Pierce asked that the British High
Court of Justice return the twins to the
United States and suggested that a St.
Louis court would be the “proper forum
for further proceedings.”
A St. Louis judge last week also asked
that the case be resolved in that city
because the girls were bom there.
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Bush lauds tax cut to solve economic woes
■The president continued his trek
’ through the Midwest to gain support
for his proposal.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHICAGO - President Bush warned
Tuesday that the “great boom is begin
ning to sputter,” saying the economy
needs the jolt that his massive tax cut
would deliver.
Bush took to the floor of the chaotic
Chicago Mercantile Exchange, one of
the world’s busiest trading hubs, in his
latest attempt to rally Americans behind
his $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut and a
budget that would hold federal spend
ing to slightly above inflation.
Unlike previous events on his tax
cut tours, which focused on the benefits
to families and small businesses, Bush
this time said his plan would help entre
preneurs and, by extension, the sluggish
economy.
"We’re facing a problem, and the
problem is our economy is slowing
down,” Bush told traders and clerks at
the live-cattle trading pit. “This great
boom is beginning to sputter a little bit”
Weather
TODAY TOMORROW
Sunny Sunny
high 44, low 24 high 52, low 20
Later, he said his economic package
would “make sure this economy doesn’t
continue to sputter. When you give peo
ple some of their money back or don’t
take it in the first place, they will have
money to spend.”
Bush issued glum assessments of
the economy during his transition to
power, a tactic that GOP consultants
said would help inoculate him from
political fallout if a recession hits early in
his term. As president, Bush has increas
ingly used bad economic news as a sell
ing point for his tax-cut plan.
Bush faces a tough sell in a divided
Congress, forcing him to troll for moder
ate Democrats in both chambers.
That is why he welcomed Rep. Bill
Lipinski, D-I1L, to his address and invit
ed the lawmaker to join him aboard Air
Force One for the flight back to
Washington.
“He and I will have a little quality
time together,” Bush said with a wink.
The White House political operation
considers Lipinski to be leaning against
the tax cut, though the lawmaker has not
announced his intentions. Lipinski and
his staff were not immediately available
for comment.
In another show of bipartisanship,
Bush had lunch with Chicago Mayor
Richard Daley, a dyed-in-the-wool
Democrat and brother of A1 Gore's cam
paign chairman. Bush called him “a
good mayor of a big city” and told local
reporters that Daley could call the White
House “anytime he needs to.”
Bush’s brief visit to this key presiden
‘This great boom is
beginning to sputter a
little bit."
George W. Bush
President
tial state was capped by a stroll through
the exchange floor, where the clerks and
traders looked like an army of multicol
ored ants - mustard yellow smocks for
the clerks; red, blue and green for the
traders - swarming the president. They
crawled over each other to shake Bush’s
hand, all the while sneaking glances at
the electronic boards toting sales.
“When we cut that top rate.... were
sending a loud and clear message that
the entrepreneurial spirit will be reinvig
orated as we head into the 21st century',”
Bush told hundreds of cheering traders
on the exchange floor.
“Small business is the backbone of
the country."
Few in the crowd said they were
opposed to hirp, with trader Michael
Quattrodd saying he was one of the few
Democrats in the cattle pit area.
He noted that Hillary Rodham
Clinton’s controversial commodity
trades were conducted on the same
spot.
“The Republicans around here don’t
think it was an accident that Bush decid
ed to speak right here. This is the place
that started her pet scandal,” Quattrodd
said.
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ California
Judge qives record industry
control over songs on Napster
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal
judge Tuesday laid down the law
to Napster, saying that once the
recording industry comes up with
a list of copyright songs it wants
removed from the music-swap
ping service, Napster will have 72
hours to comply.
The order effectively gives the
recording industry control over
the immediate fate of the Internet
music service that lets computer
users download popular songs for
free.
Napster is fighting to stay
online and retain its popularity
while promising to shift over to a
subscription-based service that
charges listeners and pays royal
ties to artists.
Napster, which has struggled
with little success in the past few
days to screen out some songs
already identified by record
labels, declined to comment on
the ruling by U.S. District Judge
Marilyn Hall Patel.
“If Napster complies with
what this injunction says, it will be
to our satisfaction,” said Howard
King, an attorney for heavy metal
band Metallica and rapper-pro
ducer Dr. Dre in their $10 million
lawsuits against Napster.
■ New York
Some in Northeast steamed
after winter storm fizzles
After days of dire warnings,
frenzied shopping and canceled
flights, New Yorkers were spared
the worst of the nor’easter. But
some of them weren’t grateful.
They were steamed.
Weather Channel correspon
dent Jim Cantore, dispatched to
report live from Times Square on
Monday, was summarily reas
signed after pedestrians started
heckling him with taunts like,
“Where’s the storm?”
New York City schools closed
when there was no snow but
opened as the inches accumulat
ed. Flights were canceled for three
days in a row, even though the
weather was only bad for one day.
And shoppers-spapped up bread,
milk, shovels and salt, preparing
for a siegethat never happened.
“TheysakUlwdttTd be heavy
yesterday and light today. We got
the opposite,” Mike Queen com
plained as he bought a newspa
per in Pleasantville, in suburban
Westchester County.
■ Israel
New Israeli leader faces task
of restoring security in region
JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon is
set to become prime minister
Wednesday as the head of a
broad-based government that
will face the urgent task of restor
ing security to an anxious Israel
rocked by five months of violence
with the Palestinians.
A month after his election vic
tory, Sharon will present his unity
government to parliament on
Wednesday.
It could include more than 80
members of the 120-seat Knesset,
according to Ruby Rivlin, a mem
ber of Sharon's Likud party.
With peace talks on hold and
Islamic militants threatening
more bombings, the 73-year-old
Sharon faces tough decisions on
how to deal with the Palestinian
uprising that has claimed more
than 420 lives.
■ New York
Witnesses offer versions of
Combs'nightclub incident
The man with whom Sean
“Puffy” Combs argued in a night
club just before shots rang out will
not testify at the rap impresarios
trial, lawyers said Monday.
Instead, jurors will consider a
statement from Matthew “Scar"
Allen, who gave prosecutors and
police his version of events that
led to the shooting at Club New
York early on Dec. 27,1999.
Allen yelled, “I’ll kill you!” at
Combs and then threw a wad of
money at him seconds before the
shooting started around 2:45
a.m., witnesses have testified.
Three people were wounded by
gunfire.
Allen’s statement says that as
Combs’ entourage passed by, he
was jostled and he pushed back.
He also said money was thrown,
but he did not say he threw it or
that he threatened Combs.