Police: Colorado shooting suspect takes own life (AP)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Police say they believe the suspect in a triple shooting has taken his own life following an hours-long standoff at a Colorado Springs apartment complex.

Police said in a release that 24-year-old shooting suspect Michael Arangio had barricaded himself Saturday inside a unit in The Resort at University Park complex.

Officers say they had attempted to talk Arangio into surrendering peacefully. They also tossed tear gas into the apartment, but he refused to leave.

A bomb squad robot sent into the unit after several hours discovered the man's body, and police say they believe he shot himself.

Arangio is suspected in a shooting that left three teens dead Wednesday night.

Police had received a tip from his parents that he was in the complex.

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400 attend roller rink shooting victims' funeral (AP)

BARLING, Ark. – Four siblings killed in a shooting rampage at a Texas roller rink were remembered Saturday as a part of a tight-knit family, even as the hundreds gathered in an Arkansas church to mourn them tried to make sense of the tragedy.

More than 400 people attended a service for Trini Do, 29, her sisters, Lynn Ta, 16, and Michelle Ta, 28, and her brother, Hien Ta, 21. Trini Do's estranged husband, Tan Do, 35, shot her and her siblings during a birthday party for their 11-year-old son and then killed himself.

Police in Grand Prairie, Texas, have said they believe the shooting was planned and followed years of domestic violence. Trini Do received a protective order in December against her husband, but she had it withdrawn earlier this year against a prosecutor's advice and wanted to give him another chance, an aunt has said.

The fifth victim in the shooting rampage, Thuy Nguyen, 25, was Trini Do's sister-in-law. She will be buried in Vietnam.

Four others were wounded in the rampage, but police said their injuries were not life-threatening.

The siblings' deaths have shaken the immigrant community in western Arkansas, where more than 1,300 Vietnamese live in the Fort Smith area. Trini Do and her siblings moved to Fort Smith from Vietnam in 1994.

Their friends and relatives gathered Saturday in the Sacred Heart of Mary Church in nearby Barling. A choir performed a hymn in Vietnamese entitled "Coming Home" as the caskets were escorted into the auditorium. Children carried framed photos of the dead, and a procession of relatives followed. Many youth tied white strips of cloth around their foreheads as a sign of respect.

The Rev. Peter Quang Le, in a homily delivered primarily in Vietnamese, described how many were still in disbelief after the shootings, even after seeing the bodies of the dead.

"We cannot understand it," he said.

Le asked the audience not to be angry or seek revenge, but to pray for the victims and their family.

"The psychological wounds because of violence in the minds of (the Ta) family will endure all their lives," he said.

Everyone in the auditorium stood, raised their right hand and turned toward Le as he touched the chest of Hoi Ta, the siblings' father, and prayed. Ta stood in silence, his arms crossed and his shirt sleeves rolled.

When the caskets were opened at the end of the service, Hoi Ta led a long line of mourners to the bodies. He leaned into the faces of his children and whispered a few quiet words to each.

Trini Do's aunt, Janice Tran, and other relatives remembered her as a good-natured person who worked two jobs and loved to travel.

"When you talked to her, you know what kind of person (she was)," Tran said.

Relatives remembered Lynn Ta, who attended a Fort Smith high school, for her smile and passion for taking photos with her friends. Michelle Ta loved to shop and cook, they said. Hien Ta was an avid swimmer and basketball player.

The siblings were among about 30 friends and family who attended the private party at the rented roller rink. A DJ at the rink told The Associated Press that guests had just finished singing "Happy Birthday" to the couple's son when Tan Do spoke to him briefly, then pulled out a gun and shot Trini Do and her relatives.

One of Trini Do's four surviving siblings was wounded in the rampage and remains hospitalized, Tran said. Trini and Tran Do's son and his 3-year-old sister were not injured in the shootings and have been in the care of other relatives. Tran said they were at the funeral.

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Man wanted by FBI gets prison in deputy shooting (AP)

NORWALK, Calif. – A man once listed among the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting and injuring a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy.

Emigdio Preciado on Tuesday pleaded guilty to assault on a peace officer. The 41-year-old gang member had fled after the shooting in September 2000.

He was extradited last year from Mexico, where he had lived in a small town under an assumed name.

Preciado and two other men were charged in the shooting of Deputy Michael Schapp in Whittier during a traffic stop. The two others charged in the case were convicted and sentenced to prison.

Schapp was shot in the face, but his partner was not wounded.

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Testing under way on brain of man in Pa. shooting (AP)

MEDIA, Pa. – Testing is under way to determine if a brain tumor contributed to a Pennsylvania ex-convict's shooting rampage that left three people dead before he was killed in a standoff with police.

The Delaware County medical examiner is performing tests on the brain of 51-year-old Mark Geisenheyner, who was killed by police on July 4, two days after shooting five people in neighboring Montgomery County.

Dr. Fredric Hellman tells the Delaware County Daily Times results could take weeks.

Authorities say Geisenheyner was seeking revenge over an insurance scam when he barged into the vacation home of a New York City couple and opened fire. A 2-year-old boy from Massachusetts was among those killed.

An acquaintance tells the newspaper Geisenheyner disclosed the tumor to him about a week before the shootings.

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Information from: Delaware County Daily Times, http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_re_us/storytext/us_suburban_philly_shootings/42217135/SIG=10rghitpa/*http://www.delcotimes.com

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3rd victim in Pa. shooting rampage dies of wounds (AP)

PHILADELPHIA – A woman who was among five people shot during a rampage at her weekend home in eastern Pennsylvania died Thursday, the third victim in a home invasion that police said was orchestrated by an ex-convict later shot dead in a standoff.

The Lehigh County coroner's office said 58-year-old Monica Shay of New York City died of her injuries at a hospital in Allentown. Her nephew, 43-year-old Joseph Shay, and 2-year-old Gregory Erdmann, were killed in the shooting.

Monica Shay's husband, Paul, and the toddler's mother, 37-year-old Kathryn Erdmann of Fall River, Mass., were also shot but survived. Erdmann was the nephew's girlfriend.

Paul Shay owns a plumbing company in New York City. Monica Shay worked as the director of the arts and cultural management program at Pratt Institute.

"The Pratt Institute community is shocked and deeply saddened by Professor Monica Shay's untimely death," said Pratt Institute President Thomas F. Schutte. "Professor Shay was an esteemed educator who demonstrated inspiring leadership as head of the Institute's arts and cultural management program. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to her family and friends and to all of those at the Institute whose lives she touched."

Police said ex-convict Mark Geisenheyner stormed the vacation house in Douglass Township on July 2 to seek revenge on Shay's husband. Authorities said this week that Geisenheyner, who died Monday in a standoff with police, claimed Paul Shay had cheated him in an insurance scam.

Since leaving prison last year, the 51-year-old Geisenheyner had been vowing revenge on Shay. He broke into the Shays' home late Saturday and said, "Guess you never thought you'd see me again," before shooting Shay in the head. Geisenheyner then shot the four others.

Paul Shay and Kathryn Erdmann are still hospitalized but have been talking to investigators.

Geisenheyner told friends that he had taken the rap and been cut out of the profits for an insurance scam he and Shay had concocted, investigators said earlier this week.

Geisenheyner was arrested for possessing artwork that had been reported stolen from the Shays' home in 2006 and was sent back to prison on a parole violation, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman said. Paul Shay was not apparently charged, and Ferman said she didn't know if there was any truth to Geisenheyner's account. Shay filed an insurance claim on the painting, which went missing about a month after a fire at his home.

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Bystander says watched run-up to Katrina shooting from motel (Reuters)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – A bystander who witnessed the run-up to a fatal police shooting in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina told a New Orleans court on Thursday that he watched from a motel balcony as a gunman fired a rifle at an unarmed man.

Douglas Bloedorn testified he tried to warn the man to take cover but the gunman, who prosecutors said was a police officer, turned the weapon on Bloedorn.

"Get in your room and get down," he shouted at Bloedorn, according to testimony. Minutes later, his motel room was filled with police who stayed for 45 minutes. When they left and he stepped out of the motel, the body of a dead man lay near the entrance.

The testimony came during the second week of a federal trial of five New Orleans police officers charged with civil rights violations connected with the shooting deaths of two people, the wounding of four others and obstruction of justice related to a cover-up.

Killed in the shootings were 40-year-old Ronald Madison, who died at the entrance to the Friendly Inn motel, and 17-year-old James Brissette.

Charged are sergeants Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius and Arthur Kaufman, and officers Robert Faulcon and Anthony Villavaso. All face possible life sentences if convicted. Five more have pleaded guilty to their part in the incident.

Defense attorneys have argued the officers were responding to a perceived threat and that it was difficult to be rational in the tragedy and chaos of the storm's aftermath.

Bloedorn was the latest of several witnesses, including some officers at the scene, who have testified that police fired on unarmed people who did not appear to pose a threat.

TRIED TO WARN MAN

Bloedorn testified that in 2005 he was living in a second-floor room at the Friendly Inn, at the west end of the Danziger Bridge.

On September 4, he heard gunfire coming from the bridge and went to the balcony outside his room where he said he saw a man in dark clothing aim a rifle at an unarmed man who was running through the motel parking lot.

He said the gunman fired once but the man kept running.

Bloedorn said he shouted to the man, "Dude, stop, they're going to kill you."

The man apparently escaped alive, according to testimony. The gunman was later identified as a police officer.

In other testimony, one of the police officers who fired his weapon that day said four months passed before anyone asked him for a detailed account of what happened.

Michael Hunter drove the truck that carried about a dozen officers to the Danziger Bridge after they received a report that civilians were firing on police near the bridge.

Hunter said an investigator called together all the officers who had used weapons at the police substation immediately after the shooting, but the discussion was brief.

"There were just three questions: What weapon did you fire, how many times did you fire and who did you fire at," Hunter said.

He said no one asked whether civilians had fired at police. He said he believed that was because everyone knew the civilians had no guns and understood that the police goal was to justify the shooting.

"At some point Lieutenant (Michael) Lohman turned to somebody to his right and said, 'We can't have this looking like a massacre,'" Hunter recalled.

Lohman was among the officers who pleaded guilty for his role in the alleged cover-up. He testified for the prosecution earlier in the trial.

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Cynthia Johnston)

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Third person dies from weekend Pennsylvania shooting (Reuters)

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A third person has died as a result of a weekend shooting rampage in Pennsylvania that has been described as a possible revenge killing.

Monica Shay, 58, a professor at New York's Pratt Institute, died on Thursday at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown.

Shay was one of five people shot in rural Montgomery County north and west of the city. Her husband, Paul Shay, 64, remains in the hospital after being shot in the same incident in Douglassville.

Three of the victims, including a 2-year-old, are dead. The suspected gunman, Mark Geisenheyner, 51, was killed by police as he hid in the basement of the home of a friend some 48 miles away.

"He is an evil, unrepentant monster," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said of Geisenheyner. She had earlier said the violence may have been provoked by an insurance dispute that Geisenheyner had with one of the victims.

Monica Shay, of New York's East Village, was the head of Pratt's Arts and Cultural Management program.

"Professor Shay's contributions as a faculty leader resulted in creating a program recognized internationally for its innovative curriculum," said Concetta Stewart, dean of the school of art and design.

Authorities in Montgomery County are investigating whether the shooting came about as part of a revenge scheme because Geisenheyner had been imprisoned for receiving stolen art from the Shay home in 2006.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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NY pharmacy shooting suspect to plead not guilty (AP)

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – A New York man accused of killing two pharmacy employees and two customers during a holdup for prescription painkillers is expected to plead not guilty Thursday to murder and other charges.

A court-appointed attorney for 33-year-old David Laffer, of Medford, is to enter the pleas to upgraded charges in a Long Island courtroom when a grand jury indictment is unsealed.

Laffer and his wife, 29-year-old Melinda Brady, were arrested June 22 in their suburban home a mile and a half from Haven Drugs, where authorities say he opened fire on the victims before jamming a backpack full of prescription painkillers.

Prosecutors have called the killings, which were captured on a drugstore surveillance camera, "the most cold-blooded robbery-homicide in Suffolk County history."

The four deaths were the worst mass killing on Long Island since a gunman opened fire on a Long Island Rail Road train in 1993, killing six commuters.

Laffer, who was originally charged with one count of first-degree murder and resisting arrest, is being held without bail in protective custody in the county jail. His wife is being held on $750,000 bail on allegations of driving the getaway car.

She has cooperated with investigators, police have said, but prosecutors say she also faces the likelihood of upgraded charges from a grand jury in coming days.

Authorities have not said whether the painkillers were recovered after the holdup, but Police Commissioner Richard Dormer noted both were high on drugs when they were arrested.

The victims included the 45-year-old pharmacist who was working so a colleague could enjoy Father's Day and a 17-year-old clerk who was days away from her high school graduation.

A 71-year-old man picking up medication for his ailing wife and a 33-year-old mother of two who was planning to be married this year were shot in the back of the head when they unwittingly walked in on the carnage, police said.

Prosecutors say Laffer left with painkillers "of the hydrocodone family." His fingerprints were found on a piece of paper left on the store's countertop, according to a prosecutor. But defense attorney Mary Beth Abbate has suggested Laffer was a frequent customer and could have left his fingerprints there some other time.

More troublesome for the defense is the surveillance video that captured the massacre, although the suspect in the shooting wore a beard, hat and mask. Laffer was clean-shaven when he was arrested.

Brady blamed her husband when she was led from police headquarters to a nearby precinct holding cell following her arrest last week. "He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick," Brady said. "He did it. He did all of this," she told reporters.

She had previously posted messages on a website discussing her difficulty with painkillers.

Laffer served in the Army from 1994 until 2002 and attained the rank of private first class, said Mark Edwards, a spokesman for the Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox. While in the service, he worked as an intelligence analyst.

Media reports have said he lost his job at a Long Island warehouse several weeks ago.

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New Orleans police go on trial in Katrina shooting deaths (Reuters)

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Jury selection began on Wednesday in the trial of five police officers accused of shooting and killing of two people and wounding of four others days after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.

The case, one of a string of federal civil rights prosecutions brought against local police, is one of the largest police brutality cases ever mounted by the U.S. Justice Department, according to legal analysts.

The officers, some of whom are still on the job, face multiple counts of deprivation of civil rights, use of a weapon in a violent crime, or obstruction of justice.

The charges stem from a September 4, 2005, shooting incident on the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans and from an alleged cover-up that went on for years afterward.

The trial of Kenneth Bowen, Robert Faulcon Jr., Robert Gisevius Jr., Arthur Kaufmann and Anthony Villavaso II is expected to last up to six weeks. A sixth defendant, Officer Gerard Dugue, is scheduled for trial in the fall.

Killed in the shootings were James Brissette, 17, and Ronald Madison, 40.

Five other current or former officers have pleaded guilty to various charges and admitted to being either directly involved in the Danziger Bridge incident or aiding in an alleged cover-up.

"The alleged cover-up adds a whole different dimension to the case," said former federal prosecutor and New Orleans attorney Harry Rosenburg said.

"It's not just about how officers might have reacted on that day but what occurred in the following several years after the dust settled, ranging from false reports to fictitious witnesses to an allegedly planted weapon," he said.

Working from a makeshift station in the aftermath of the Katrina's flooding, the officers in question received a call that police officers were being fired upon on the Danziger Bridge, according to court documents.

A number of them jumped into a Budget rental truck and headed for the bridge. The shooting began when the group came upon unarmed civilians who were walking on or near the bridge, the documents said.

Other officers have testified that two officers who jumped from the truck fired on the civilians, with one sergeant firing repeatedly as they lay wounded on the ground.

Rosenburg said a key question in the trial will be whether any officers were actually fired upon that day and, if so, who did the shooting.

In March, two former New Orleans cops were sentenced to prison for their roles in killing a man and burning his body shortly after Katrina.

A few weeks before that sentencing, the Justice Department released a scathing report of local police practices following a lengthy probe and is expected to eventually impose an order mandating dozens of changes.

Civil rights professor Jack Beerman told Reuters the trial could be the most significant case of alleged police brutality since members of the Los Angeles police department faced charges in the beating of civilian Rodney King in the 1990s.

Los Angeles residents rioted in April 1992 when those officers were found innocent.

"The important thing is a sense of justice for the community," said Beerman, of the Boston University School of Law. "If locals perceive that the government is not responding when civil rights are violated, you have a problem."

The officers in the Danziger case initially faced murder or attempted murder charges. But a judge tossed the case out of court in August 2008, citing errors by the prosecutor's office. In July 2010, federal prosecutors indicted the officers on the civil rights charges.

(Editing by Karen Brooks and Peter Bohan)

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NY pharmacy shooting suspect's wife: 'He did it' (AP)

MEDFORD, N.Y. – The wife of a former soldier accused of shooting four people to death at a local pharmacy during a robbery for painkillers said "he did all of this" for her.

Melinda Brady and her husband, David Laffer, were arrested Wednesday in connection with the Father's Day massacre at the Haven Drugs in Medford.

"He was doing it because he lost his job and I was sick," Brady said as she was led from Suffolk police headquarters in Yaphank early Thursday morning.

"He did it. He did all of this," Brady, 29, told reporters. She seemed addled and disheveled in an over-sized yellow T-shirt and black shorts.

Laffer faces charges of first-degree murder. Brady was charged with robbery and obstructing governmental administration. Her alleged role in the robbery was not specified. They were scheduled to be arraigned later Thursday.

The robber in Sunday's heist entered the pharmacy cloaked in a loose sweatshirt, baseball cap and glasses. His thin face was hidden under a bushy beard — possibly a fake — as he opened fire, killing all four people inside.

Police circulated clear surveillance photos of the gunman after the weekend shooting, and received hundreds of tips in an intense manhunt that ended Wednesday with the capture of a 33-year-old who was led from his Long Island home in handcuffs.

Laffer, who a few years ago proposed to his now-wife at a New York Islanders hockey game, said nothing as he was led from police headquarters Wednesday wearing a white jumpsuit except to shake his head and say "No" when asked by a reporter if he was strung out on drugs. He was later briefly hospitalized, but officials did not say why.

Laffer served in the Army from 1994 until 2002 and attained the rank of private first class, said Mark Edwards, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Fort Knox. While in the service, he worked as an intelligence analyst.

Friends and neighbors said they did not believe Laffer, whom they described as polite and friendly, was the shooter.

About 30 to 40 officers converged on Laffer's home early Wednesday, said Peter Spano, a landscaper who was working on the lawn next door. Spano said the thin, "distraught" man resembled the suspect in the surveillance photos, except without a beard.

Friends and neighbors said if there were drug problems, they did not see it. He lived at his family's home in Medford with his mother, Pam, and his wife.

According to their wedding announcement, Laffer and his future wife met while they were out to dinner with mutual friends, and he proposed to her at an Islanders game. "To Melinda's complete surprise, he had been planning the engagement for more than a year and his proposal was shown on the large TV screens in the arena," according to the 2009 announcement.

Next-door neighbor Trish Bohlert attended the wedding and said Laffer was always friendly.

"Something must have made him snap, because his personality, I can't picture him robbing a store, much less hurt people," she said.

Zaida Ayala, a longtime neighbor, said Laffer is "a guy that I feel comfortable with, a guy that I could be out, 1 o'clock in the morning in my backyard, and he could be in his backyard and I wouldn't run inside and go get my husband."

She said she does not believe he is the shooter.

"You could give me a million dollars to pick somebody and he would be the last person I would've picked," she said.

His Facebook page showed he was interested in weapons and science fiction. He lists himself as a fan of the conspiracy-based science fiction drama "Dark Skies" and the Spike TV show "Deadliest Warrior." He also lists Springfield XD, a type of pistol, among his interests.

The wedding announcement said Laffer worked in logistics shipping and receiving.

The shootings happened Sunday at about 10:20 a.m. inside Haven Drugs, a pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, about 60 miles east of New York City.

The victims were shot at very close range by the man bent on stealing painkillers.

Everyone in the pharmacy at the time of the robbery was killed. The victims were identified as two employees, pharmacist Raymond Ferguson, 45, of Centereach, and store clerk Jennifer Mejia, 17, of East Patchogue, and two customers, Bryon Sheffield, 71, of Medford, and Jamie Taccetta, a 33-year-old woman from Farmingville.

It was the worst mass killing in Suffolk County since 1974, when a man shot six relatives to death in Amityville, a crime that spawned horror films and a book after the family's home was said to be haunted.

At the pharmacy, about a mile and a half away from the Laffer home, bouquets of fresh flowers, and stuffed animals lined the shuttered storefront. A sign read, "closed until further notice."

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Associated Press writer Karen Zraick contributed to this report.

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NY ex-officer's conviction nixed in fatal shooting (AP)

NEW YORK – An appeals court says a former New York City police officer shouldn't have been convicted of manslaughter for his off-duty shooting of an unarmed, drunken driver after a car crash.

The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division voided Rafael Lora's conviction and dismissed the case Tuesday.

Lora was off duty when he heard a minivan crash into a parked car outside his Bronx home and went to investigate in May 2007. He said minivan driver Fermin Arzu ignored his commands and began driving away, dragging him along. Lora said he shot Arzu five times out of fear for his life.

The court found Lora didn't act recklessly, as the manslaughter charge required.

Lora's lawyers and union say his actions were justified. Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson says he may appeal.

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Tucson shooting suspect departs Ariz. for Missouri (AP)

TUCSON, Ariz. – The suspect in a deadly Tucson shooting rampage has left Arizona, headed by plane to a Missouri prison facility where mental health experts will try to make him psychologically fit to stand trial.

Chris DeRosa, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service in Tucson, says Jared Lee Loughner was flown out of Tucson around 9 a.m. PST Friday.

Loughner will spend up to four months at the facility in Springfield, Mo. A judge ruled Wednesday that the 22-year-old was mentally unfit to assist his lawyers in defending him.

Mental health experts who examined Loughner concluded he suffers from schizophrenia.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from the shooting that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others and killed six people.

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