Well, looks like a 67 year old man who lives not far off the route between UM-Morris and UM-Minneapolis (though closer to the latter) has decided to kill a few people because he was unsatisfied with his health care.
No one is dead yet, at least according to reports datelined 30 minutes ago, but he shot bullets into the bodies of a minimum of 5 people, more than one of whom (the number is as yet unclear) had to be evacuated from their location in a health care facility to a “level 1 trauma centers”. I have no idea what that means (my job here is to translate legal & feminist jargon, not the medical whodiddle), but it sounds kinda bad.
Meanwhile, in addition to attempting to deal with a “horrible looking scene” (quoted words spoken by the local sheriff), our evil mastermind decided to build a whole bunch of bombs and scatter them around. The Minneapolis’ police bomb squad had to be called in to deal with the terrorist’s devices. I expect that will take a while, both because the scene is fairly far from Minneapolis (36-41 miles, depending on the route) but also because there were “suspicious devices” (read: improvised explosive devices) at his hotel, as well. If he’s using a car, they’ll have to check that for bombs, too.
The name of the suspect is “Gregory Ulrich” and CNN is reporting that he has a long history of harassing the health care clinic that he shot up (though they use nicer language than “harassing”) and is “familiar” to law enforcement.
Can we have red flag laws everywhere, please? Or is trying to save lives too politicizing of tragedies even when Republicans are out of power?
While you’re thinking about that question, don’t distract yourself with questions of the shooter/bomber’s race and whether the face of US terrorism is at all racialized, because they’re not even reporting on the shooter’s race, so there, and you’re not allowed to guess! If his race was relevant, they would definitely have reported that he was Black.
As the mainstream pundits have started telling us, at last we now see the USA returning to normal.
Pierce R. Butler,
Haven’t seen anyone claiming the shooter is a muslim yet.
The victim that was sent to the trauma unit died. The others are in critical but stable condition, with one having been discharged.
The shooter has a Vicodin problem. A restraining order was issued in 2018 due to him threatening the clinic and staff because they refused to prescribe him opioids.
It seems pain, poverty, and a lack of any access to proper healthcare to deal with a spine injury and opioid addiction were the causes of his murderous shooting spree.
It’s a tragic chain of events, but it wasn’t an instance of another maga gone murderous.
Buffalo is at the northwest fringe of the Twin Cities metro area. It was rural 20 years ago, but urban sprawl is not considered a bad thing by most developers and city councils.
Well, we don’t exactly know that, do we? I’m not blaming the MAGAs, I’m just saying MAGA status is currently unknown to me. (And I didn’t mention or even reference MAGA membership in the OP.)
While the shooting may not be politically motivated (however defined), the shooter is still very likely to be
1. White
2. Male (this appears confirmed)
3. A man with a past history of abuse of women
Statistically, that’s just how mass shooters roll. We can localize a “cause” involving addiction or an untreated medical problem, but there are background factors here since not every addict or everyone with an untreated medical problem harasses medical staff then shoots up a hospital/clinic. I’m not saying that violence against women is a cause of the current violence against medical staff, but it’s certainly something that can help us understand the current violence and how to prevent similar, future violence. Could those background factors that help us better understand the violence (and how to prevent it) include having one’s MAGA sense of grievance and entitlement stoked over the past few years? Sure. That’s possible.
He had been threatening female Drs and staff, which is why there was a restraining order. Drug induced psychosis is a thing. I’ve not come across any mention of him having any type of personal relationships besides a former room mate in his trailer. He might have been evicted, which explains why he has been living at the motel.
That corner of the outer metro extends along the interstate highway 94 towards the city of St. Cloud, AKA White Cloud.
I live here, so I am happy that this does not seem to be maga inspired violence. White and male were both givens simply because it’s Buffalo.
If you haven’t seen the follow up yet:
He was uttering threats of violence.
There was a court order to seize his guns.
The guns were taken away.
He applied for a new gun permit.
The cops GAVE HIM A PERMIT.
He used the new gun to commit the murder and shooting.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gregory-ulrich-restraining-order_n_60271713c5b6591becd8cc7e
You can’t spell inCOmPetent, COrruPt or COmPlicit without C-O-P. But you can spell lack of accountability without it.