by The Editors on October 9, 2010
Carlsbad’s Laguna Riviera Park as children were being released.
In the hours since suspected gunman Brendan L. O’Rourke, 41, walked onto the campus of Carlsbad’s Kelly School a little after 12 PM October 8, 2010 and began firing a handgun more information has come out regarding day’s events. Below are links to some of the most recent coverage.
We’ll add more as information become available.
by The Editors on October 8, 2010
by The Editors on October 8, 2010
Click here for a photo gallery.
At 12:12 PM today (Friday, October 8, 2010) a man in his early 40s, described by witnesses as “white with short gray hair” drove to Kelly Elementary School (at the corner of Park and Kelly Drive) got out of his car, and began shooting a handgun at children on the playground. He was apprehended minutes later. Two second grade students were injured with non-threatening wounds in their upper extremities and were transported by helicopter to Rady Childrens’ Hospital.
According to a story on NBC San Diego. Local Carlsbadistan big wave surfer and stand up paddler Scott Chandler jumped in with two construction workers to take down the suspect.
He said that he and a couple of construction workers tackled the man. “I believe he ran out of bullets, then ran to a fence, chased by a couple guys,” Chandler said, whose two children both graduated from the school. . . The gunman had a box of bullets in his pants that police recovered and had brought a 5-gallon gas can with him as well. Law enforcement located a propane tank after the shooting and began to use a robot to examine the tank at about 1 p.m. The tank is leaning on a silver four-door American-made sedan — possibly a Crown Victoria — that was blocked off by a black pickup truck and a police patrol car.
Parents began arriving at Laguna Riviera Park around 1 PM not sure what to expect and knowing only what they heard from friends. Many were on the edge of tears. It wasn’t until 1:15 PM that an officer explained to the gathered group that “an armed suspect on the campus has been taken into custody” and that the children we currently locked down. “I’m going to need everybody to by on my side and be as patient and calm as you can,” he said. “And trust us that we are trying to make everything safe so that we can get everyone to you as quickly as we can.
As we mentioned before it wasn’t until 2:35 PM that the first students began exiting the school.
Click the link for the rest of the NBC story, or click here for a photo gallery.
by The Editors on November 8, 2010
On a national level, the 2010 elections will go down in history as a populist revolt against big government. But in three North County cities, the year will be remembered as the one in which voters really, truly paid attention.
To their credit, voters in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Encinitas studied the issues, weighed the pros and cons of each side, and made informed decisions, unswayed by who had the most, and prettiest, campaign signs and mailers.
Call it the election of sense and sensibility.
In the Carlsbad mayor’s race, victor Matt Hall was seriously outgunned by fellow Councilman Keith Blackburn in both signs and mailers, thanks in large part of the police and fire unions, which spent thousands of dollars to protect their inflated pensions. The Friday before the election alone, I received no fewer than five Blackburn mailers, including one, sent by the Carlsbad Police Officers’ Association, that hit a new low in sleaziness. Under the headline, “Matt Hall neglected our families’ safety,” the cops blasted Hall for “talking to reporters” after the Kelly School shootings, while praising Blackburn for “humbling” donning his police uniform and helping out behind the scenes.
[click to continue…]
by Thomas K. Arnold on October 13, 2010
The tragedy could have been a calamity. Had gunman Brendan O’Rourke not been tackled by three heroic construction workers as he was fumbling with his gun, the senseless shootings last Friday at Kelly School in Carlsbad could have gone on—and we might have had one of the worst massacres in history instead of just two little girls being shot in the arm.
Moments after writing this opening line, I felt ashamed. “Just two little girls”—as though that isn’t tragic enough. Two little girls, 6 and 7 years old, happy that it’s Friday, happy that the school week’s coming to an end, probably looking forward to a soccer game Saturday morning and maybe a visit to the pumpkin patch or Legoland in the afternoon. A point in space, in time, and their lives are changed, possibly forever—strapped to a gurney, rushed to a hospital, worked over by doctors. Their physical wounds will heal, but their emotional ones? No one can tell.
[click to continue…]
by Richard J. Riehl on December 19, 2012
It could happen here. In fact, it did happen here two years ago, on October 8, 2010, when a mentally ill gunman jumped a fence, entered the Kelly Elementary schoolyard and began firing at kids ranging from 7 to 11 years old. Two seven-year-old girls were struck in their arms. It was a miracle nobody died. Had the shooter been carrying the same semi-automatic rifle used by the Sandy Hook Elementary School killer the result would have been a tragedy of the same magnitude.
Yesterday, after several days of grieving for the families who lost loved ones in that small town in Connecticut, we were greeted by a press release from the Carlsbad School District reporting that a high school student had “threatened to cause harm” to other students on December 21. The threat had been made “prior to” the Sandy Hook tragedy. The student has been identified, and school officials say there is “no reason to believe the student has the means to act on this threat” and that they’re keeping in “close contact with the family and school authorities to determine the appropriate next steps in keeping the campus safe.” [click to continue…]
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TK Arnold: Sense And Sensibility
by The Editors on November 8, 2010
On a national level, the 2010 elections will go down in history as a populist revolt against big government. But in three North County cities, the year will be remembered as the one in which voters really, truly paid attention.
To their credit, voters in Carlsbad, Oceanside and Encinitas studied the issues, weighed the pros and cons of each side, and made informed decisions, unswayed by who had the most, and prettiest, campaign signs and mailers.
Call it the election of sense and sensibility.
In the Carlsbad mayor’s race, victor Matt Hall was seriously outgunned by fellow Councilman Keith Blackburn in both signs and mailers, thanks in large part of the police and fire unions, which spent thousands of dollars to protect their inflated pensions. The Friday before the election alone, I received no fewer than five Blackburn mailers, including one, sent by the Carlsbad Police Officers’ Association, that hit a new low in sleaziness. Under the headline, “Matt Hall neglected our families’ safety,” the cops blasted Hall for “talking to reporters” after the Kelly School shootings, while praising Blackburn for “humbling” donning his police uniform and helping out behind the scenes.
[click to continue…]
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