The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 20, 2000, Page 3, Image 3
.Snots fired in hostage standoff
BY SHEILa HOTCHKIN
Associated Press
Dundalk, Md. — A murder suspect
holding three people hostage for a third
day repeatedly fire! bursts of gunfire out
a window at policeSunday while break
ing off his telephone contact with nego
tiators, officials said.
Authorities tried to avoid agitating
the suspect, who wasbelieved to be watch
ing the ordeal on television.
Joseph Palczymki had been on the
run since March 7, when police say he
^ kidnapped his girlfriend, Tracy White
head, and killed the couple she was stay
ing with and a neighbor. A fourth per
son was killed and a boy was wounded
when Palczynski allegedly carjacked a
vehicle, police said.
Whitehead escaped unharmed; po
lice wouldn’t disclose her whereabouts.
Palczynski later fled to Viiginia, where
he stole guns and forced a man to drive
him back to Baltimore County.
The five bursts of gunfire Sunday
morning were the first signs of activity
since Palczynski took Whitehead’s moth
er and two others hostage Friday night.
No injuries were reported and police
didn’t return his fire.
Palczynski stopped talking with ne
gotiators for about an hour and a half Sun
day morning, and police moved in with
an armored vehicle and a bullhorn to urge
him to resume communications.
“Joby, we need you to pick up the
phone,” an officer said over the loud
speaker, using Palczynski’s nickname.
“Come on Joby, pick up the phone.”
Palczynski responded with shots and
the armored vehicle backed away.
He soon resumed talks, but then fired
more shots, spokesman Bill Toohey said.
“Our main strategy is patience, pa
tience, patience,” Toohey said.
After Palczynski returned to the area
from Vnginia, police searched the area
for more than a week. On Friday, he broke
into a house, tied up the occupants and
stole three guns.
He then shot his way into the home
of Whitehead’s mother, Lynn Whitehead.
Relatives said he was holding Lynn White
head; her boyfriend, Andy McCord; and
12-year-old Brad McCord.
Police refused to characterize their
negotiations with Palczynski but con
finned that a psychiatrist was helping ne
gotiators. Police have said Palczynski has
bipolar disorder, often called manic-de
pression, which causes extreme mood
swings.
The 31-year-old unemployed elec
trician also has a history of convictions
for assault and battery. Days before the
killings, he was charged with assaulting
Whitehead but was released on $7,500
bail.
In 1992, he kept police in Idaho at
bay for 16 hours following a domestic vi
olence complaint by a girlfriend. He was
finally forced out with tear gas.
Relatives and friends say Palczynski
has said that he would shoot himself or
make police shoot him rather than go
back to prison.
Police had not allowed anyone in or
out of the blue collar suburb east of
Baltimore since the standoff began.
Death toll in Uganda
fire could reach 470
by George Mwangi
Associated Press
Kanungu, Uganda—RutembaDidas
heard what sounded ike an explosion,
then saw black smoke billowing from the
brick structure on a lilltop compound
where members of a Kligious cult had
been living for several years.
The farmer and his neighbors heard
screams coming from the chapel, but they
couldn’t get close to the new building in
side the compound where members of
the Movement for the Restoration of Ten
Commandments of God lived in this re
mote comer of southwestern Uganda.
Police said Sunday it may take them
a week to determine how many people
died in the Friday morning fire, but
they believe there were as many as 470
victims — of mass suicide or mass mur
der.
....
“Wfe did not see any person running
away. We really don’t know what hap
pened to the leaders,” Didas said, stand
ing a short distance from where charred
bodies lay spread across the floor of a
120-foot by 30-foot structure.
Circumstances surrounding the deaths
— who the dead were and how the fire
was started — remain foggy. Little was
known about the cult, although it ap
peared to incorporate Christian beliefs
and local fanners said it was led by a for
mer prostitute.
Syncretic Christian religious sects are
mushrooming across «*> * nany peo
ple become disillusioned with the inability
of politicians to improve their lives. In
one case, also in Uganda, a sect turned
into a guerrilla movement that used claims
of religious powers to attract fighters.
In Kanungu, cult members locked
themselves in the chapel early Friday and
nailed doors and windows closed, then
sang for a few hours before dousing them
selves in gasoline and paraffin and setting
themselves ablaze, said David Sseppu
uya, deputy editor-in-chief of the gov
ernment-owned New Vision newspaper,
quoting investigators.
“According to an eyewitness on the
site, they came around and bid farewell
to die people and they heard that the Vir
gin Mary would appear on Friday, so they
did expect to die on Friday,” Sseppuuya
said.
Dldas said the cult was established in
1994 by former prostitute Credonia Mw
erinde at her family’s compound.
He said members of the cult did not
socialize with others in the area and com
municated only by gesture, although they
did sing and pray aloud. The women wore
white veils, and the men wore black, green
or red shirts, he said.
Taiwanese president
to resign party post
by William Foreman
Associated Press
Taipb, Taiwan — Storming the Na
tionalist Party’s headquarters, a stone
tltrowing crowd demanded—and got
— President Lee Teng-hui’s promise
Sunday to quit as the party’s leader, oik
day after its humiliating election defeat
Many of the thousands of protest
ers blamed Lee for fielding a weak can
didate who was trounced by the oppo
sition in Saturday’s presidential election.
The vote will bring to power an
untested leader, Chen Shui-bian, who
some fear could spark a devastating war
with Taiwan's longtime rival, China,
through his party’s support for the is
land’s formal independence. The two
sides split amid civil war in 1949, and
China insists Taiwan must eventually
reunify with the mainland.
A crowd of about -3,000 chanted
"Step down president! ” and surround
ed the Nationalists’ headquarters in
downtown Taipei.
Some smashed the windows’of lim
ousines bringing party members to the
building for an emeigency meeting with
Lee to respond to Vice President Lien
Chan’s loss in Saturday’s vote.
An angiy mob chased senior party
adviser Hsu Li-teh down the sidewalk,
kicking, punching and beating him with
poles. They knocked him to the ground,
but he was able to stand up and scurry
into the building.
The violence and chaos were rare
for Taiwan, where political violence is
almost unheard of and heated street
protests have grown increasingly rare
as full democracy has taken root over
the past decade.
But with the Nationalists losing the
presidency for the first time in Tai
wanese history, the island’s young
democracy headed into the unexplored
and voters tried to make sense of
Taiwan seei*g£4
News Briefs
■ Clinton arrives .
in Southeast Asia
New Dehu, India (AP) — President
Clinton opened the first visit by an Amer
ica president to South Asia in 22 years
Sunday night, hoping to curb the nuclear
weapon rivalry between India and Pak
istan and cool territorial tensions in “per
haps the most dangerous place in the world
today.”
Security concerns arose almost as soon
as Clinton arrived.
Shortly before a daylong trip to
Bangladesh, White House spokesman Joe
Lockhart said a visit to the rural village
of Joypura was canceled “because of con
cerns raised by the Secret Service.” In
stead, Clinton planned to meet with the
villagers in the capital of Dhaka.
White House officials would not elab
orate.
Also before his arrival, protesters in
the capital burned an effigy of the presi
dent. In the northern region of Kash
mir, police beat back separatists seeking
to reach New Delhi and draw attention
to their cause.
■ Putin urges Russia’s
voters to elect him
in first round of voting
Moscow (AP) —With his standing in
the polls dipping, acting President Vladimir
Putin uiged Russian voters Saturday to
elect him with a clear majority to avoid
a second round, but denied that he’s wor
ried about winning.
On a campaign trip to the southern
city of Nforonezh, Putin was cautious about
the outcome of the March 26 election,
saying he would prefer a clear decision
to avoid a runoff. But he said his call was
based solely on a desire to save the coun
try the expense of a second-round vote.
Recent polls show support for Putin
down by 2 to 3 percentage points com
pared to the 60 percent he had received
in recent weeks. Putin’s nearest rival,
Communist Party chief Gennady
Zyuganov, trails with about 20 percent,
while most of the other candidates bare
ly show up in the polls.
“I count on success, but it’s not of
major importance in which round to win.
It’s the result that matters,” Putin said
Friday.
If:
Starting this Wednesday, March 22, the On-Line appl
system will be turned “On”. If you want to sign up for Bate:
Capstone, Columbia Hall, the Horseshoe (non-honors
Laborde, Sims, East Quad, South Quad, or the Roost yoi
apply via the University’s VIP website.
%
So all current on-campus residents, start those computers ;
log-on to http://www.vip.sc.edu.
The On-line application system will be turned “Off” at midnight, ^ "ffi
March 31. You can modify your application as many times as you jjgLJffg
would like before the system is turned off. (Whatever information
that is in the computer at midnight on March 31 will be used in
making your housing assignment!)
Don t be an April Fool! Be sure to get your housing
requests entered before the deadline, March 31 at
midnight, to be included in the inital assignment ■