TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Author: Trench Reynolds

  • Hostage dies from injuries

    Hostage dies from injuries

    Gunman, hostage dead after high school siege:

    The female teenage hostage at the Platte Canyon High School siege has died from her injuries…

    A girl who was shot by the gunman died about 4:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET) at the hospital after a helicopter transported her there, said Bev Lilly, a spokeswoman for St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver.

    Police said earlier they believed the girl was 16. She was shot as police stormed the room where the gunman was holding hostages, police said. The gunman then shot himself.

    My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of the victim.

  • Hostage crisis over

    Hostage crisis over

    Hostage situation over:

    The hostage situation at Platte Canyon High School in Colorado has ended. One student was critically injured, and the adult gunman took his own life…

    The gunman was cornered with the girls in a second-floor classroom and he released four of them, one by one. Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said authorities decided to enter the school after the man cut off negotiations and set a 4 p.m. deadline. At the time, he was still holed up with two girls.

    “It was then decided that a tactical solution needed to be done in an effort to save the two hostages,” the sheriff said, his voice breaking. “Entry was made. The suspect shot one of the hostages, then shot himself.”

    The remaining hostage was unharmed and talking with authorities. The sheriff said the gunman threatened the girls virtually throughout the four-hour ordeal, at one point fired a shot within the classroom and shielded himself with his hostages.

    The suspect was not identified and the sheriff was at a loss to explain a motive.

    “I don’t know why he wanted to do this,” Wegener said.

    Students described the suspect as a bearded man toting a camouflage backpack and the sheriff confirmed that: “He did have a backpack and said he would set it off.” The man was also toting a handgun.

  • Hostage situation in Colorado high school

    Hostage situation in Colorado high school

    Bailey School Hostage Situation Prompts Evacuation:

    (CBS4) BAILEY, Colo. Platte Canyon High School in Bailey was evacuated early Wednesday afternoon because of a hostage situation with a gunman, Park County emergency dispatchers said.

    Dispatchers said there was at least one hostage.

    Jefferson County authorities said deputies, including the SWAT team and bomb squad, from their sheriff’s office were on stand-by to assist if called by Park County authorities.

    More as details are released.

    Thanks to Soobs for the tip.

  • Dyleski gets life

    Dyleski gets life

    Dyleski gets life in prison without parole:

    Scott Dyleski has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the murder of Pam Vitale.

    Some words from the sentencing judge…

    “The one time I saw you show any emotion is during autopsy photos,” Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga told the Dyleski as she sentenced the teenager.

    “I saw you, sir, lean forward and your mouth fell open. And that’s the position you remained in. You were absolutely fascinated by your handwork. You don’t deserve to live among decent people.”

    The pleas for leniency by Dyleski’s lawyer obviously fell on deaf ears, and took the brutal way Pam Vitale was killed into consideration rather than Dyleski’s youth and “troubled upbringing”.

    Personal responsibility wins a rare victory.

  • Dyleski lawyer asks for leniency

    Dyleski lawyer asks for leniency

    Defense asks for leniency for Dyleski:

    Citing his unstable childhood, the attorney for convicted murderer Scott Dyleski has asked a judge to consider handing down the lightest possible sentence for killing his neighbor, Pamela Vitale.

    Dyleski deserves a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, which would give him the opportunity for parole, deputy public defender Ellen Leonida wrote in her sentencing memo to Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga.

    “All he is asking for is an opportunity to demonstrate — many, many years from now — that he can change,” Leonida wrote.

    He showed no leniency on Pam Vitale, so the state of California should not show him any.

  • San Antonio victim met attacker on craigslist

    San Antonio victim met attacker on craigslist

    Assault Victim Met Attacker Through CraigsList:

    This is the most disturbing craigslist story I’ve posted so far…

    In an arrest warrant obtained by KXAN NBC Austin, a 23-year-old man told police that he was raped after answering an ad on CraigsList — the popular Internet community.

    The victim says he answered an ad offering “partying and hanging out with other men and women.”

    He says after talking through e-mail and by phone with a man identified as Ernest Lamey, the pair made arrangements to meet in person.

    The most disturbing part is police say he could have more victims.

    Details found in the warrant show that Lamey gave the victim some sort of alcoholic beverage. Police believe it was laced with sleeping pills.

    After falling asleep, the victim woke up to Lamey sexually assaulting him and called 911. A search on Lamey’s home uncovered the sleeping pill Ambien, a pill crusher and powder in a kitchen cabinet.

    If you think you may be a victim, contact Austin police.

    Is anyone else having flashbacks of Pulp Fiction and ‘The Gimp’?

    Anyway, if you’re looking for friends, with benefits or otherwise, you may want to look somewhere else besides craigslist.

  • Colleen Grear

    Colleen Grear

    Scripps worker charged with seducing 14-year-old via the Internet:

    JUPITER A 22-year-old woman was arrested at her Scripps job on Tuesday and charged with sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy she’d met on the Internet at MySpace.com, deputies said.

    Colleen N. Grear, of Singer Island, was charged with one count of using a computer to seduce or solicit a child and three counts of sexual assault of a child under age 18, the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office said.

    Detectives said Grear contacted the 14-year-old through MySpace.com early in the summer. She met with the child three times, PBSO said.

    PBSO also said Grear confessed to having oral sex and intercourse with the boy, who is from northern Palm Beach County.

    Recently, the boy’s mother discovered what was going on and contacted PBSO.

    Grear is a divorced mother of a 2-year-old child. In addition to working at the Scripps lab, she is a student at Florida Atlantic University and is a cheerleading coach at a local high school, PBSO said.

    It was not immediately known what Grear does at Scripps at its Jupiter operation.

    But since she’s a woman, she’ll probably get no time.

    I have no access to MySpace right now, so if anyone wants to post the link to hers in the comment section they may.

  • Joseph Colasacco given 10 years

    Joseph Colasacco given 10 years

    MySpace predator sentenced to 10 years:

    Joseph Colasacco, who I originally posted about here, has been sentenced to 10 years for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy he met through MySpace.

    He was arrested in February after the 14-year-old’s step-father found him in bed with the boy with a pornographic DVD playing on a television and pornographic magazines scattered about the boy’s room.

    Have fun in prison, scumbag.

  • Parenting, what a concept

    Parenting, what a concept

    The Return of the School Shooting:

    This is an opinion piece from Blogger News Network about school shootings, which also comes to the most logical conclusion about them…

    However, I think it’s important to note that kids getting picked on doesn’t explain the totality of the issue. Something had to make school shootings start in the first place in the mid-to-late ’90s — bullying has been going on for ages — and analyses of Columbine showed the shooters did not concentrate on those who’d picked on them, opting instead for “Doom”-style random violence.

    My preferred explanation — one that ruffles feathers — is parenting. Many of these kids had plenty of time alone in their houses (Harris and Klebold made pipe bombs), and in most cases I can recall, the parents could easily have afforded quitting one job or working fewer hours. It’s also a parent’s job to monitor his/her children’s mental health issues, and keep guns away from the offspring if need be.

    I think it’s the only explanation that stands up to scrutiny, as it’s one of the few explanations that changed markedly between my parents attending high school in the ’70s (much bullying, lots of access to guns, no shootings) and now. Other factors can make it wax and wane, but as long as parents let a violent media raise their kids, the shootings won’t disappear.

    I’m glad to see that I’m not going crazy by having the same opinion.

  • Blame only one

    Blame only one

    Kimveer Gill — perhaps he was just evil:

    Kimveer Gill is not society’s victim:

    The first article is from a right-wing Canadian website. Wait, there are right-wingers in Canada? Just kidding Canucks. And the second article is from Kimveer Gill’s high school English teacher. Both articles are along the same lines.

    First from the right-wing article. While I don’t agree necessarily with how they got their point across, I do agree with their point…

    More importantly, Kimveer Gill will never be blamed for the actions of Kimveer Gill. The notion that Gill was just an evil man and that he and not the gun registry, violent video games and the Goth culture were responsible for the carnage will be rejected by the masses as being too simplistic; too George Bush-like. In a society where many people can’t recognize the evil of Islamofascism, it is too much to expect people to recognize the evil of what was once Kimveer Gill.

    In the end, all that was responsible for the actions of Kimveer Gill was Kimveer Gill.

    And now the article from Gill’s teacher, one Ms. Freda Lewkowicz…

    But the litany of blame omitted someone, and there’s only one person who should be blamed for Kimveer Gill’s school rampage on Sept. 14.

    Only one angel of death can dance on the head of this pin of sorrow and that is Kimveer Gill.

    He is responsible for shooting 20 students and killing 18-year-old Anastasia De Sousa. He should not be permitted to become a victim.

    It’s great to see that some people still actually believe in personal responsibility.