Wednesday, June 02, 2010

As horrifyingly often as we read stories like these...

...do they ever become comprehensible?

A gunman has killed twelve in Cumbria (northwest England). One was his friend. The other 11 were strangers he shot randomly. There are 30 different crime scenes so far and he is still at large:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/10219655.stm


[Update at 7:15 p.m. PST. Friends, neighbors and acquaintances of the assailant, who has since killed himself, report he was an outwardly stable and affable man. No discernible motive so far:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/10216923.stm
]

2 comments:

diane said...

I know that stories like this are sadly all too common, but in Britain they're still pretty rare, thankfully. I'm 31 (and British) and I think there have been three massacres in this country in my lifetime. (That's still three too many, of course.)

The latest news, in case you haven't seen it, is that the gunman shot his twin brother first, in what's believed to be a dispute over a family will. Horrifying.

Litsa Dremousis: said...

Hi, Diane. I'm so sorry for what's occurred the past two days in Cumbria. Utterly horrifying.

Thank you so much for the update: I hadn't read the latest. I didn't realize the assailant's motive (in his own mind, anyway) was believed to be a will.

And you're right, of course: news like this isn't common in Britain. I hope it remains so. As you know, we read about it over here and in other parts of the world all too frequently.

Thanks for weighing in.

Best to you and yours,
Litsa