In last month, mass shootings claim 53 lives

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http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/04/05/D97CF2L80_month_of_shootings_glance/index.html


In last month, mass shootings claim 53 lives
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Associated Press Writer


Apr 5th, 2009 | A string of shootings in the U.S. in the last month alone has claimed the lives of 53 people:

--MARCH 10, SAMSON, Ala. -- A gunman kills 10 people and commits suicide in a rampage that spanned two dozen miles across the southern Alabama countryside. Police say Michael McLendon had struggled to keep a job and left behind lists of employers and co-workers he believed had wronged him.

--MARCH 22, OAKLAND, Calif. -- A man pulled over in a routine traffic stop fatally shoots two officers and then kills two more in a gunfight in which the suspect was also killed. Relatives say Lovelle Mixon, 26, had been frustrated about not finding work and feared returning to jail.

--MARCH 29, SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- A man shoots and kills his two children and three other relatives, then kills himself at a family housewarming party in an upscale neighborhood. Investigators don't yet know the motive of Devan Kalathat, a 42-year-old engineer at Yahoo.

--MARCH 29, CARTHAGE, N.C. -- A man opens fire in a nursing home and kills seven elderly residents and a nurse who cared for them. Investigators say Robert Stewart, 45, apparently had targeted an estranged wife, a nurse's assistant who escaped by hiding in a bathroom.

--APRIL 3, BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- A gunman bursts into an immigrant center and kills 13 people before killing himself. Police say Jiverly Wong, a 41-year-old Vietnamese immigrant, was apparently upset about losing his job and about people picking on him for his limited English.

--APRIL 4, PITTSBURGH -- A gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opens fire on officers responding to a domestic disturbance call, killing three of them. Police say Richard Poplawski, 23, had been upset about losing his job and feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

--APRIL 4, GRAHAM, Wash. -- A man fatally shoots his five children in their mobile home and then takes his own life in his car miles away. Relatives identified the father as James Harrison. A motive was not yet known.