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Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Man who killed police officer in CDC shooting died from self-inflicted gunshot
The man who fired more than 180 shots at the headquarters of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta last week died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing a police officer, officials have said. Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) director Chris Hosey said documents found in a search of suspect Patrick Joseph White's home 'expressed the shooter's discontent with the Covid 19 vaccinations' ahead of the August 8 attack. White had written about wanting to make 'the public aware of his discontent with the vaccine,' Mr Hosey said. The 30-year-old had also recently verbalised thoughts of suicide which led to law enforcement being contacted several weeks before the shooting, Mr Hosey said. Swat team members walk inside the scene of the shooting (Ben Hendren/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP/PA) White's family was fully co-operating with the investigation, authorities said at a news briefing on Tuesday. White had no known criminal history, Mr Hosey said. Executing a search warrant at White's home, authorities recovered written documents that are being analysed and seized electronic devices that are undergoing a forensic examination, the agency said. Investigators also recovered a total of five firearms, along with other critical evidence. Mr Hosey said White broke into a secured safe to get the weapons, including a gun that belonged to his father that he used in the attack. 'More than 500 shell casings have been recovered from the crime scene,' the GBI said in a statement Tuesday. Officials are conducting a threat assessment to the CDC facility and making sure they notify officials of any threats.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Irish Times
Trump sends troops into Washington DC: distraction tactic or part of wider policy?
It's one of the unique quirks of living in Washington, DC : the presidential motorcade sweeping through the city, with attendant street shutdowns and security sweeps and by-passers rubbernecking for a glimpse. But the occupant of The Beast, as the presidential state car is nicknamed, can look out on the world too. The short bursts to and from the White House are the only real opportunity that any president has to observe the city in which they reside. And this weekend, Donald Trump decided he had seen enough. On the short drive back through the city from his Virginia golf club, Trump saw a homeless encampment, a littered underpass and someone sleeping rough near the Capitol. Within hours, he had announced Monday's press conference, which he titled as being on 'Crime and Beautification' of the city. 'We are here for a serious purpose ,' he told a crowded media attendance in the James Brady press room on Monday morning. 'I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse. This is liberation day in DC and we are gonna take our capital back. We are taking it back.' The announcement that the actions of the DC police will be placed under federal control and that National Guard will be deployed in the city for 30 days, under section 640 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, was, he told the room, for their benefit also. READ MORE 'Many of you tend to be on the liberal side but you don't want to get mugged and shot and raped and killed,' he said, before declaring the murder rate in Washington is 'higher than Bogotá, Colombia or Mexico City, some of the places you hear about as the worst places on Earth.' The announcement was a sudden, no-warning escalation of Trump's long-held portrait of Washington as a fallen, urban nightmare for its citizens. At the outset of his election campaign last year, he described the capital as 'a rat-infested shithole' during a snowy Sunday-morning stumps speech in Iowa. Now, as first resident of Washington, he was in more benign mood and leant into the idea of his reclamation project of an extension of his recently-announced intention to enhance the White House with a ballroom. Even as Trump continued to speak through a press conference that soon diverged into a rambling forecast of Friday's meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, statistics refuting the president's claim about Washington's crime and safety began to appear in the majority of news networks. The majority noted that violent crime had fallen from the alarmingly high rates of 2023. In 2024, the violent crime rate in Washington was 1,005 per 100,000 residents - which unquestionably represents a significant threat in a city of just 700,000 people. It was twice as high as the figure for New York City, but less than half that of Memphis, which has a similar population. DC authorities argue that the 2025 statistics are indicative of a spectacular turnaround, on track to achieve a 30-year low – an achievement the president may well attribute to this week's intervention if it continues until the end of the year. But with his usual facility for blurring dates and data to produce an argument that suited his broader purpose, Trump noted that the 2023 murder rate in Washington was the highest in 25 years. He also described crimes of which he had direct knowledge: the shocking carjacking and murder of a former Trump administration official Mike Gill, which happened in the early evening in the heart of downtown early in 2024 and, just weeks ago, the attack on Edward Coristine, a former DogeE staffer who was set upon and viciously beaten by a group of youths after he intervened in an attempted carjacking. 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people, and we're not going to let it happen any more,' Trump vowed as he stood at the podium flanked by his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and attorney general Pam Bondi, who will now become the first holder of that office to take charge of the metropolitan police force. The response from Democratic opposition was predictably scathing, with former house speaker Nancy Pelosi issuing a statement that Trump 'delayed deploying the National Guard on January 6th when our Capitol was under violent attack and lives were at stake'. 'Now he's activating the DC Guard to distract from his incompetent mishandling of tariffs, healthcare and immigration – to name just a few blunders,' her statement continued. But the Democrats failed to make January 6th a deterrent to voters in last year's election. And the broader operatic message behind Monday's performance will be well received among the Republican supporters, as will his vow that while police officers were for years restricted from responding when agitators spat in their faces, under his executive orders they 'will be allowed to do whatever the hell they want'. It was presented as a companion piece to the Trump administration's border policy: a zero-tolerance emergency programme to cleanse Washington DC of a decades-old malaise and restore it to being a capital city of which Americans can be proud. 'You have countries where every Saturday the people go out and they wash the sidewalks in front of their doors,' Trump said at one stage. 'We are not quite at that level yet. I think it's so beautiful to hear that. You know my father always used to tell me – I had a wonderful father, very smart. He used to say: 'son, if you walk into a restaurant and you see the front door is dirty, don't go in. Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty also.' Same thing with the capital. If the capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty – and they don't respect us.' Nobody was certain of how the sudden infusion of 800 national guard members and FBI to the city's regular policing force will 'look', or whether it will be limited to a four-week exercise in image and high-profile arrests. The mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, said at a hastily called press conference of her own that she believes that president Trump's view of the city was shaped by his experience of the city during the pandemic. Invited to state whether she worried that the 30-day emergency measures could turn out to be a 'disaster,' she replied: 'I'm gonna work every day to make sure it's not a complete disaster, put it that way.' The broader question on Monday centred around why president Trump had ordered this drastic intervention now. Sceptics interpreted the gesture as another high-profile distraction tactic to divert attention from the Epstein imbroglio. Monday's announcement by Trump coincided with a brutal ruling by Paul Engelmayer, the judge who rejected the department of justice request to unseal the grand jury transcripts relating to the Epstein case. In a 31 page-opinion he stated that granting it would 'casually or promiscuously' erode future confidence of citizens called to testify before panels. Crushingly, Engelmayer argued that the entire thesis forwarded by the department, most vocally by attorney general Bondi, that the transcripts could provide additional information that the public deserves to know 'is demonstrably false'. The arrival of Putin in Alaska – if he shows up - for his summit with Trump should keep the Epstein story at bay for the remainder of the week. Meanwhile, the military is coming to Washington for the last few weeks of the summer. It remains to be seen whether it's a symbolic gesture. But just two months ago, Trump ordered the California National Guard on to the streets of Los Angeles in the wake of anti-deportation protests. And on Monday, in referencing Chicago, Baltimore and Oakland, he hinted that this could be the beginning of a new pattern. 'This will go farther,' he promised. 'We are starting strongly with DC.'
Sunday World
01-08-2025
- Sunday World
Man accused of attacking ex in front of their children before ‘speeding off' in her car
The man was denied bail and the accused cannot be named at this time A 30-year-old man accused of attacking his former partner in front of their children at her south Dublin home before "speeding off" in her car has been denied bail. The unemployed father was charged with assault causing harm, burglary, motor theft and production of a metal bar as a weapon during the incident at the woman's home on the evening of July 18. Judge White noted at Dublin District Court today that there were no orders in place under the Domestic Violence Act but said he was exercising discretion to impose reporting restrictions. As a result, the accused cannot be named. He said a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions and gardaí would recommend the accused face trial on indictment, in the Circuit Court. The investigating garda maintained that the unemployed man arrived by taxi at his ex-partner's home and entered the property. Dublin District Court in the Criminal Courts of Justice. Photo: PA News in 90 Seconds, Friday August 1 The woman was in her bedroom with her children while the accused allegedly grabbed her mobile phone and then punched her with a closed fist to the left side of her face. The woman then fell from the bed and was repeatedly hit while she tried to get up. The contested bail hearing was told that she managed to get out of the bedroom and went downstairs. However, it was claimed that the man, who is the father of her children, pulled her back by her jacket and brandished a metal bar from her vacuum cleaner. Judge White was told that she managed to get downstairs, open a window and "shouted for help". Meanwhile, the accused is said to have stolen €360 and her car key from her wallet. It was alleged he got into her car and drove away. The woman suffered "a busted lip and pain to her face, thighs and elbows", and there were photos of her injuries, the court heard. The car was recovered two days later. CCTV evidence, not played during the bail hearing, was said to have recorded shouting and roaring and the accused subsequently "speeding away". Gardaí had also taken statements from the woman, a taxi man and a neighbour to support the charges. The investigating officer also alleged the accused had evaded gardaí who had checked several addresses until he was found on Thursday. Concerns were raised that he had drink and drug issues and that he or his family would engage in witness interference. The defence submitted that the man denies the allegations, has the presumption of innocence and could face a lengthy period in custody on remand. His barrister also proposed a strict set of bail terms, including movement restrictions and no contact with the woman who did not attend the bail hearing. The accused claimed, via his counsel, that his former partner had told him she would withdraw the allegations and, instead of jailing him, she wanted him to get help for his problems. The defence raised issues about the use of hearsay evidence that would not be permitted in the trial. The judge denied the bail application but granted legal aid and a certificate for counsel. The man was remanded in custody to appear again next week.
