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shooting

Gun used by child to shoot teacher was ‘secured’

By Ben Finley | Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va. — The family of a 6-year-old boy who shot and wounded his teacher in Virginia said Thursday that the gun he used had been “secured” and that one of his parents usually accompanied him in class but did not the week the shooting took place .

The family’s statement was released by an attorney and did not elaborate further on where the 9mm handgun was kept. The family also was not identified.

The statement came on the same day officials announced Richneck Elementary School teacher Abby Zwerner, who was wounded in the January 6 classroom shooting, has been released from the hospital.

“Our family has always been committed to responsible gun ownership and keeping firearms out of the reach of children,” the statement said. “The firearm our son accessed was secured.”

The family also said that the boy “suffers from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the school which included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day.”

The family said the week of shooting “was the first week when we weren’t in class with him. We will regret our absence on this day for the rest of our lives.”

The statement was released through the office of Newport News-based attorney James S. Ellenson. It is the first public communication from the child’s family and comes nearly two weeks after the shooting occurred in Jan. 6 at Richneck Elementary.

Police said earlier that the 6-year-old’s mother legally purchased the gun but that it was unclear how her son gained access to it. A Virginia law prohibits leaving a loaded gun where it is accessible to a child under 14, a misdemeanor crime punishable with a maximum one-year prison sentence and $2,500

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January 26, 2023 by LAW

CT lawyer who won $1B Alex Jones verdict talks Sandy Hook trial

WESTPORT — In October, almost ten years after the Sandy Hook school shooting, eight families of the victims and one FBI agent received $965 million in a defamation case against Alex Jonesone of the largest damages awards in history — and a lawyer from Westport played a key part in it.

On Jan. 19, the Y’s Men of Westport hosted a talk with Attorney Josh Koskoff, a longtime Westporter and Staples grad, who represented the families in this trial, as well as a case against Remingtonthe manufacturer of the gun used in shooting.

Koskoff opened with a quote from the Bible, where God casts Satan from heaven: “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.”

“And merchandise is what Alex Emerick Jones is all about,” Koskoff said.

For years, Jones used social media platforms, his own website, InfoWars, and his radio show, “The Alex Jones Show,” to spread misinformation about the shooting that killed 20 students and six educators. Some instances include calling the shooting a “hoax” that was staged by “crisis actors.”

He listed examples of merchandise Jones has promoted, including supplements and iodine, which helped fund his programs.

“Jones takes from the playbook from other figures, notably cult leaders, terrorists and autocrats,” Koskoff said. “His major message is that the world is filled with global and corporate elites and media elites that are coming to enslave you, take away your guns and depopulate you.”

Koskoff said that they had to convince the jury that there were people who believed Jones’ rhetoric.

“The truth is, you have

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January 22, 2023 by LAW

Attorney: Officer shot man 5 times, paused, shot him again

CONCORD, NC — Body-camera footage shows a North Carolina police officer shoot an unarmed man five times after a chase, pause to call dispatch, and then shoot him again, attorneys for the dead man’s mother said Tuesday.

Attorneys for Brandon Combs’ mother, Virginia Tayara, said they were in “utter disbelief” after being shown the video of the February shooting last week, news outlets reported. The attorneys called on officials to release the footage to the public and charge the officer involved.

Concord police had initially described the shooting as the resulting from a “physical confrontation” at a car dealership where Combs, a 29-year-old white man, was trying to steal a truck.

But Tayara’s attorneys say the footage shows that no struggle ever occurred between Combs and Officer Timothy Larson before the officer opened fire. Instead, they said it shows a short foot chase that ended when Combs got into the driver’s seat of Larson’s police SUV.

They said the officers shot Combs five times, called dispatch and then shot him again. They did not specify how much time elapsed between the fifth and sixth shots. A spokesperson for the Concord Police Department didn’t immediately return a phone call or respond to an email seeking comment on Tuesday.

“He murdered him. He shot him in cold blood. I just want the officer held accountable and I want the city of Concord to make some changes to the way they do business,” Tayara said.

Civil rights attorney Harry Daniels told The Charlotte Observer that it was one of the worst police–shooting videos he has ever seen and that Combs’ death hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves because police presented the shooting as an “open-and-shut cases.”

“We didn’t know anything until we saw (the video). We watched it in disbelief,” Daniels

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July 2, 2022 by ATTORNEY
November 2023
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