Full moon’s making people crazy

Alabama gunman kills 9, including 4 relatives
‘He cleaned his family out,’ coroner says; mom dies inside her burned house

March 11: Police are investigating a deadly shooting spree across two Alabama counties that ended with at least 10 people dead, including the gunman. NBC’s Ron Mott reports.

updated 1 hour, 57 minutes ago

GENEVA, Ala. – Nine people were gunned down in a terrifying rampage across two Alabama counties by a lone shooter who authorities said burned down his mother’s home with her inside, killed his own relatives on their porch and shot apparent strangers and police before killing himself.

Tuesday’s shootings in a mostly rural area near the Florida border were believed to be the work of Michael McLendon, who lived with his mother and had once worked at a local metal plant.

The bloodshed began when McLendon burned down his mother’s house in Kinston, according to Coffee County Coroner Robert Preachers. Authorities found Lisa McLendon’s body inside, but they had not determined how she died or whether she was a 10th victim of her son’s spree.

McLendon then drove a dozen miles southeast to Samson, in Geneva County, where he took down nine victims, including four members of his family. The rampage ended another 12 miles farther east in Geneva at the metals plant where McLendon had once worked. After a shootout with police, McLendon killed himself.

‘He cleaned his family out’
Investigators declined to comment on a motive for the shootings, in which at least four other people were injured, including a child. The victims’ names have not been released.

“He cleaned his family out,” Preachers said. “We don’t know what triggered it.”

After McLendon burned down his mother’s home, he shot and killed five people on one porch and a 74-year-old woman next door in Samson, said Kirke Adams, district attorney for Geneva and Dale counties. Four of the six killed were members of McLendon’s family.

Preachers had said McLendon’s victims included his grandparents. But Adams said the 74-year-old victim might have been McLendon’s great aunt.

The two unrelated victims were the wife and 18-month-old child of a Geneva County sheriff’s deputy. They had stopped by the home to visit.

‘Sprayed bullets’
McLendon then drove around Samson, shooting out his car window, killing three more people seemingly at random.

“He sprayed bullets through the town,” Adams said.

One woman was struck down as she walked out of a gas station. Another man was driving. Another man was shot as he tried to run away.

“In a cowardly act, he shot him in the back,” Adams said.

McLendon fired several shots at a Wal-Mart store in Geneva. No one was killed, but it was unclear if anyone was injured.

“There’s a lot of people who had close calls,” Adams said.

Samson contractor Greg McCullough said he was pumping fuel at the gas station when the gunman roared into the parking lot and slammed on his brakes.

“I first thought it was somebody playing,” McCullough said. Then he saw the rifle.

McLendon opened fire, killing the woman who walked outside and wounding McCullough with bullet fragments that struck his truck and the pump. At one point the rifle appeared to jam, then McLendon fired more shots before driving off.

“I’m just in awe that something like this could take place. That someone could do such a thing. It’s just shocking,” McCullough said.

Police pursued McLendon to Geneva’s Reliable Metal Products, where he got out of his car and fired at police with his automatic weapon, wounding Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey. He then walked inside and killed himself.

“He had plenty of ammo in his car and other weapons and he appeared to be going to do some damage there,” Adams said.

There had recently been layoffs at the plant, but it was not immediately known if McLendon was among those losing their jobs. A person who answered the phone at the plant said no one could talk about the shooting.

Samson Mayor Clay King said he knew the gunman and the victims.

“What I’m focusing on is people here in the town, making sure they feel comfortable,” said King, who added the town of about opened a crisis center at the First Baptist Church with counselors available. “I’ve lived here 44 years and never, never dreamed of this happening.”

King told NBC’s TODAY show that he coached the suspect along with his own kids in tee-ball and in Little League. “If you had asked me two days ago if he was capable of this, I would have said certainly not.”

‘Most tragic events ever’
State Rep. Warren Beck, a Republican whose office is near the Wal-Mart, said his secretary heard gunfire everywhere.

“This is one of the most tragic events ever in Geneva County,” he said.

Among others injured was a state trooper injured by broken glass after McLendon shot his cruiser seven times. A child of unknown age was taken to Wiregrass Medical Center in Geneva before being flown to another hospital, hospital administrator John Rainey said.

Ready to treat more victims
The hospital’s staff was ready to treat more injured victims, but their hopes were dashed as death reports trickled in.

“Unfortunately, we were getting the same bad reports as everyone else: Most people were untreatable,” Rainey said. “It’s something you’d expect in Atlanta or your bigger cities, but in a little town it puts a lot of people in stress. Our nursing staff broke down in tears hearing what was going on and realizing they weren’t going to be able to help them.”

One of the spots sprayed with bullets was a hardware store in Samson. Yellow tape was strung across glass windows shattered by at least five bullets. A “closed” sign was on the ground outside atop glass shards.

Tommy Boyles, a 76-year-old security guard who works at the same plant where McLendon killed himself, said he and his wife were on the street nearby.

“We could have been caught up in it just as well as anyone else,” he said. “That’s what scares you: to be an innocent bystander and some nut walks up with a gun.”

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Gunman kills 15 in German school rampage
17-year-old former student ‘carried out a bloodbath’ before police shot him

March 11: Police shoot and kill a gunman who opened fire at his former high school in Germany, killing 15 people. MSNBC’s Monica Novotny and NBC’s Andy Ekhardt report.

updated 6 minutes ago

STUTTGART, Germany – A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people before police shot him dead, officials said.

Nine students and three teachers were among the dead, State Interior Minister Heribert Rech said.

It was Germany’s worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.

Most of the slain students were found dead in the school and the gunman killed an adult outside the building as he escaped, regional police spokesman Klaus Hinderer said.

“He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath,” said regional police chief Erwin Hetger. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

After the attack, the suspect fled the Albertville high school toward the center of Winnenden, a town of 28,000, Hinderer said, before police tracked him down.

The teenager graduated from the school last year, police said.

Witnesses said students jumped from the windows of the school building after the gunman
opened fire. Concerned parents quickly swarmed around the school, which was evacuated during the incident.

The man entered the school at 9:30 a.m. and opened fire, shooting at random, police said. Police said the suspect was dressed in a black.

About 1,000 children attend the school, located in a suburb some 12 miles northeast of Stuttgart.

In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt.

Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor’s note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.