At least 12 dead in Virginia Beach mass shooting
On Friday afternoon, a longtime public utilities employee opened fire in the municipal building complex of Virginia Beach, Virginia, just east of Norfolk and Chesapeake. At least twelve people were killed and another six were injured.
The shooter has been identified as 40-year-old DeWayne Craddock, a certified professional engineer in the city’s Public Utilities Department. News reports from the time show that Craddock had enlisted in the Army National Guard shortly after he graduated high school in 1996.
The shooting took place on multiple floors of Building No. 2 of the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, which includes offices for planning, public works, the police department and City Hall. It is the largest workplace mass shooting since the Aurora, Illinois warehouse shooting this past February.
The names of the victims have not been released as of this writing.
It has been reported that Craddock was killed, bringing the shooting spree to an end, though it is unclear whether or not it was during an extended shootout with police or the result of a self-inflicted gunshot. A .45 caliber handgun, extended magazines and a silencer were reportedly recovered by the police.
Injuries were being treated at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital or Sentara Princess Anne Hospital. The New York Times reported that one victim had to be airlifted by helicopter to a trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, though details on the conditions of any of the patients are not yet available.
Local authorities were alerted to the situation by an administrative assistant who works in the building where the shooting happened. According to the available police reports, a “disgruntled” employee began firing indiscriminately, though they have not yet commented on a concrete motive.
As has become common after mass shootings in the United States, politicians including Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam have responded with hypocritical laments about the “unspeakable, senseless violence.” Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine appealed for Congress to address the “daily scourge” of gun violence.
These words can be given no weight. Northam presides over a state with a heavy presence of all four branches of the US military, the greatest instigator of violence in the world. Kaine was Hilary Clinton’s running mate, who, as US Secretary of State, oversaw the destruction of Libya and laughed in response to the brutal killing of former Libyan head of state Muammar Gaddafi by US backed militias.
Nor can this latest mass shooting in the United States be treated as an isolated incident of unimaginable evil. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 150 mass shootings in the country since the start of the year, among a total of nearly 22,000 incidents of gun violence more broadly. To date, there have been 16,846 people killed or injured in shootings, including 1,332 children and teenagers.
These numbers speak to a crisis-ridden society rife with social inequality and they reveal the vast toll a quarter century of unending war has inflicted on American society. The conditions of life for broad masses of people are sharply declining and, in the absence of a mass working class movement, mass shootings are one of the many negative expressions of the overall social situation.
This killing also occurs a month after the 20th anniversary of the Columbine incident. As shown since then, the actual response of the political establishment to mass killings is to call for more heavily armed police, increased surveillance or new gun control measures, initiatives which only intensify the repressive apparatus of the state. These repressive efforts will certainly escalate in the wake of the latest, but certainly not the last, mass killing spree in America.
12 Dead, Six Wounded in Virginia Beach Shooting
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Twelve people were killed and six wounded when a gunman opened fire in a Virginia Beach municipal center on Friday.
CNN reports that earlier reports that the suspect was taken into custody have been updated to show that the suspect is dead. The deceased suspect was a “longtime public utilities employee.”
JUST IN: 11 people are dead following a shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, with six more transported to area hospitals, according to officials. abcn.ws/2XjEGYE pic.twitter.com/sCNfKTHZzB
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The shooting took place in Building 2 of the city’s municipal center.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) tweeted:
This is a tragic day for Virginia Beach and our entire Commonwealth. My heart breaks for the victims of this devastating shooting, their families, and all who loved them. I am on my way to Virginia Beach now and will be there within the hour.
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The Democrat and Chronicle quotes Virginia
Beach Police Chief James Cervera saying that
the shooter fired “indiscriminately” at people
in the municipal building.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.
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