TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: school shooting

  • Taber shooter in same type of facility he escaped from

    Taber shooter in same type of facility he escaped from

    Taber killer back in T.O.:

    The Taber, Alberta school shooter is back in an open-custody facility in the Toronto, Ontario area.

    The shooter, who is unnamed by the Canadian media, but we know as Todd Cameron Smith, previously escaped from such a facility back in August. He was allowed to go to a halfway house even though Canadian authorities still believed he posed a threat to the public. At that time of his escape, Smith vowed that he would not be taken alive.

    Luckily, he was recaptured without incident. So what do Canadian authorities do? Put him back in the same kind of facility he escaped from before. Was there no additional punishment at all for his first escape? Oh, I’m sorry, he received a suspended sentence for his escape or as they call it, being unlawfully at large.

    What would they have done if he killed someone while he was unlawfully at large? If Canadian authorities still believe that he poses a threat to the public, then he needs to be put in a secure facility.

  • Jourdain trial set for Nov. 14th

    Jourdain trial set for Nov. 14th

    Red Lake shooting suspect’s trial will begin Nov. 14:

    This is basically an article about how Louis Jourdain’s trial will start on November 14th. He was arrested in conjunction with the Red Lake High School shootings, where Jeff Weise killed 7 people at the school after killing his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend. As usual, not too many details are being released because Jourdain is being tried as a juvenile, but popular opinion says he’s being tried for conspiracy to commit murder.

    Prosecutors are alleging that Jourdain and Weise had worked on a plan for more than a year via e-mail and instant messages to kill Weise’s grandfather, steal his weapons and kill people at the school.

    Since Jourdain was at the school at the time of the shooting, I don’t know if this makes him an accomplice or if he had prior knowledge that the attack was coming. That’s just my opinion based on what the media is reporting. The truth may be entirely different, and we may never know.

  • Tell me why

    Tell me why

    School Shooter Denied Parole For 4th Time:

    The original school shooter, Brenda Spencer of the infamous “I don’t like Mondays” shooting, was denied parole for the fourth time since being sentenced to 25 to life back in 1980. For those of you who may not be old enough to remember…

    Spencer opened fire with a .22-caliber rifle on Cleveland Elementary School, across the street from her San Carlos home, in January 1979. The principal and a custodian were killed, and eight students and an officer were wounded.

    Spencer told a reporter during the SWAT standoff that she fired three dozen shots at the school because she “didn’t like Mondays,” adding the shooting “livens up the day.”

    Yes, that it is what the Boomtown Rats song is about.

    According to Snopes, this is why she’s been turned down before…

    She has been up for parole three times and has been turned down each time, the last in 2001. At her first parole hearing she expressed doubt that any of the victims were hit by bullets from her rifle and contended they might have been shot by police. She also claimed to have been under the influence of alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs at the time of the shootings and asserted prosecutors and her attorney had conspired to fabricate test evidence showing she had no drugs in her system. By her third parole hearing she was admitting guilt and expressing remorse but was still contending she had been drunk and high on marijuana laced with PCP the day of her deadly rampage. She also claimed something new, that she had been beaten and sexually abused by her father, an avowal conspicuously absent from previous records.

    She’s changed her story so many times, I can see why she’s been repeatedly denied parole. And isn’t it ironic that she was denied parole on a Monday? I guess she really doesn’t like them now.

    Tip to Zappa Crappa

  • McLaughlin gets consecutive sentences

    McLaughlin gets consecutive sentences

    Rocori shooter gets consecutive sentences: (Log in info)

    From the article…

    Rocori High School shooter Jason McLaughlin was sentenced in St. Cloud today to a life sentence and a 12-year prison term for killing two classmates in September 2003.

    McLaughlin, 17, must serve at least 30 years of the life sentence he received for the first-degree murder of Seth Bartell, 14. He also must serve at least eight years of the 12-year sentence for the second-degree murder of Aaron Rollins, 17.

    38 years minimum. For those of you who think that’s too harsh for a 17-year-old, just remember, Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins were given death sentences, and they committed no crime.

  • Kim Bartell Addresses Shooter

    Kim Bartell Addresses Shooter

    Mother of Rocori victim calls for long prison term :

    The families of John Jason McLaughlin’s victims, Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins, addressed McLaughlin today. Here are some quotes from the article…

    Asked what he would do differently if he could relive Sept. 24, 2003, Rocori High School gunman John Jason McLaughlin said recently he’d simply get closer to one victim before he shot him.

    But I guess he still would have shot him?

    Kim Bartell’s voice rose in anger as she referred to the statement McLaughlin gave to corrections officials after his conviction in July in the deaths of her son, Seth Bartell, 14, and Aaron Rollins, 17.

    McLaughlin has no remorse for what he did, she said. McLaughlin, she added “would have carried it out better, meaning to me he would have come out better. Not Aaron. Not Seth.”

    And Aaron Rollin’s family…

    Aaron Rollins’s mother, sister, and father also took the stand. At one point, Aaron’s father, Tom, held up a large family portrait taken before Aaron died.

    “Jason handed us all a life sentence without parole, and he should get the same,” said Sherry Rollins, Aaron’s mother.

    And some info about the sentencing…

    At issue is whether McLaughlin will serve his sentences consecutively or concurrently, and whether Kirk will give him a harsher sentence for the second-degree conviction in Rollins’s death.

    McLaughlin already faces life in prison on the first-degree conviction for Bartell’s death, though he can be considered for parole in 30 years.

    Sentencing guidelines call for 12 1/2 years for the second-degree murder conviction.

    Let’s hope the word of the day is consecutive.

  • John Jason McLaughlin’s sentencing today

    John Jason McLaughlin’s sentencing today

    Victims’ families to have their say:

    John Jason McLaughlin, the kid who shot and killed Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins at Rocori High in Minnesota, is scheduled to be sentenced later today.

    Under Minnesota law, family members of the victims have the right to address McLaughlin to describe the emotional, social or economic harm they’ve suffered.

    Tom Rollins, his wife Sherry, and his daughter Rachel plan to address McLaughlin, as does Seth Bartell’s mother Kim. I’ll have news on the sentencing as soon as I can, but you may want to keep your eye on this thread as someone may post the sentence here.

  • Louis Jourdain to be tried as a juvenile

    Louis Jourdain to be tried as a juvenile

    Jourdain to be tried as juvenile:

    Louis Jourdain was the 16-year-old kid who was arrested in connection with the Red Lake school shooting. The charge was never announced, since he is a juvenile.

    Now according to family members of Jourdain, he is going to be tried as a juvenile. So we may never know what Louis Jourdain is being accused of.

  • Consecutive Sentences Sought for John Jason McLaughlin

    Consecutive Sentences Sought for John Jason McLaughlin

    Extended Sentence Sought For McLaughlin:

    Prosecutors in the case of the Rocori High School shooter John Jason McLaughlin have requested that a judge sentence McLaughlin to two consecutive sentences.

    If you remember, McLaughlin was found guilty of shooting and killing Seth Bartell and Aaron Rollins at Rocori High School in Minnesota. If the judge approves the request, McLaughlin could be looking at more than 40 years. Only 40? I thought he was looking at a life sentence.

    Anyway, sentencing is still scheduled for August 30th.

  • That was quick

    That was quick

    Dangerous offender back in custody:

    The Taber school shooter, Todd Cameron Smith, was recaptured by Canadian authorities. What I find funny is under Canadian law he couldn’t be identified by the media because he was a juvenile when he killed Jason Lang and has been recaptured. But while he was loose, they were able to use his name and picture. So why back to not identifying him? You can’t unring the bell.

    Police took the extraordinary step of getting permission from a court to disclose the man’s name and release his photo in an effort to locate him. That order was automatically rescinded as soon as he was returned to custody.

    In case anyone missed it, his name is Todd Cameron Smith. Some Canadian citizens were not pleased with what happened.

    Joseph Wamback, founder of the Canadian Crime Victim Foundation, said he was outraged such a violent convict was transferred out of a prison and to an open-custody facility located near several schoolyards and basketball courts.

    “He is a convicted killer,” Wamback said.

    “He has walked away from so-called supervised custody and he has left a note, saying that he will not be taken alive. We have placed the rights of scumbags and deviants ahead of the rights of innocent Canadians.”

    I guess Canada is even worse than America when it comes to the killers having more rights than the victims.

  • Taber Shooter Escapes

    Taber Shooter Escapes

    Taber killer escapes custody:

    I had almost forgotten about the Taber shooting. At the time, I didn’t have a website, as I had dismantled the original one in the wake of Columbine after receiving all the death threats and hate mail.

    Only 8 days after Columbine, Todd Cameron Smith took a .22 caliber rifle to W.R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, Canada and shot and killed 17-year-old Jason Lang. Here’s a CNN article from around the time of the shooting. A judge originally ordered Smith held in closed custody for an indefinite period, so long as his time in jail didn’t exceed 10 years. However, earlier this year, he was released to a halfway house even though he still posed a threat to the public…

    “The concerns remain with regard to the pleasure he derives from violence,” the Crown’s David Thompson quoted a psychiatric report as saying.

    “He continues to pose a significant risk to the public.”

    During the original trial, defense lawyers portrayed Smith as the victim of bullying only here’s the thing, his victim, Jason Lang, wasn’t a bully. According to Jason’s father, Rev. Dale Lang, Jason was against bullying…

    “Ironically, one of the things that’s so sad is that Jason didn’t like bullying, and often tried to befriend kids who were picked on,” Mr. Lang said. “He was a good kid, and we miss him.”

    Rev. Lang has even gone so far as to forgive his son’s killer and has been active in anti-bullying campaigns.

    Another report says that Jason Lang did charity work in Mexico, building houses. Doesn’t sound like the bullying type to me.

    So Todd Smith shot and killed someone who would have more than likely helped him, while his alleged tormentors are probably free. Thanks to the myth that started in Columbine about the Columbine shooters being bullied, shootings and shooting plots still occur to this day. Yes, bullying is a cancer in our school systems that needs to be addressed, but if Columbine, Taber, Santee, Red Lake, and Rocori didn’t stop bullying, neither will other school shootings.

    As I’ve said before, these incidents have taken the focus away from bullying and put it on identifying would be shooters. So, in essence, it’s only made bullying worse. And like I’ve been saying for the past 6 years, killing someone, especially someone who had nothing to do with the bullying in the first place, is not an excuse nor a reason to kill people.

    Anyway, back to the point of the article. Todd Cameron Smith has escaped from his halfway house and has vowed not to be taken alive…

    Todd Cameron Smith, now 20, fled protective custody at 3:30 a.m. Monday, leaving a note in his room at the Hinks Dellcrest Centre.

    It read: “I can’t be caged anymore. If they find me, they’ll have to kill me. . . . Bye. Sorry.”

    The fact that this kid was given such a light sentence puzzles me. He shot and killed a random victim, and he was allowed to live in a halfway house? The kid should have been put away for life. Especially since one of the Canadian government’s own psychiatrists stated that Smith still posed a threat to the public.

    I pray for his capture, and I pray that he doesn’t claim any more victims.