The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 19, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
■
Two killed in shooting
at apartment building
I
by David Goodman
The Associated Press
Lincoln Park, Mich. —A tenant at
a senior-citizen apartment house opened
fire with a rifle Tuesday after he was sum
moned to a meeting because of neigh
bors’ complaints about his vulgar lan
guage, authorities said. Two women were
killed and a third woman was critically
wounded.
The man was taken into custody about
3:20 p.m. when police stormed his apart
ment, police officer Lt. Donald Gentner
said. The man did not resist and was not
injured, but was on narcotics and taken
to the hospital for observation, he said:
He was in fair condition.
The suspect’s name was not released,
and no immediate charges were filed.
Police had spent several hours search
ing the 14-story building for the gunman
after the noon shooting. Other tenants
were told to stay in their apartments dur
ing the search of the high-rise, and young
sters on the playground of an elementary
school nearby were hurried inside and
kept there until parents arrived to pick
them up.
One of the victims was Marilyn Hig
gins, 64, a former city council member
and a longtime Lincoln Park Housing
Commission member, Fire Chief Ernie
Moon said. The identity of the other
woman killed, a resident of the building,
was not released
Charles Higgins said he and his wife
were delivering day-old bakery goods to
needy residents of the building. They were
in a meeting room when the gunman en
tered, he said
“One of the residents from the
tower came down into the break room
and started shooting with a rifle and killed
my wife,” Higgins told the Detroit Free
Press.
“We were all looking at him, when
1 realized he was shooting,” Higgins said.
“I went to a room where I thought 1 could
get to a phone, and my wife came down
the hall after me. She started hollering at
hinr to stop doing that, and he .just shot
her.”
Apartment officials had summoned
the man to a meeting after other residents
complained of inappropriate language,
said Phyllis McLenon, deputy director
of the Housing Commission in the sub
urb 10 miles south of Detroit. McLenon
did not explain what she meant by inap
propriate language.
At the meeting, the man “was very
dissatisfied and making threats.... He kept
saying he wouldn’t have this character
assassination and that he would take care
of it,” she told WDIV-TV. “He was very
upset, and was very upset with some of
the ladies who were complaining about
him.”
The man said he had a continuing
problem with the women, she said.
McLenon said die man left the meet
ing and was gone for about 10 minutes,
and then the building’s maintenance man
warned by radio that the man was com
ing back shooting.
One woman was shot in the face in
the building office and another was shot.
in the doorway, McLenon said. Some
people ran to a bathroom or scrambled
under a desk to hide.
“He came in looking for us,” she said.
Chris Sullivan, who lives on the 13th
floor, said he had heard some women
complain about the man’s language. “I
never heard him use foul language, but a
lot of the ladies complained he was vul
gar,” Sullivan said.
Police officers did not say if the
women who were shot were the ones
who had complained.
In addition to the two women who
were killed, a woman was hospitalized in
critical condition.
High court
struggles
with death
row appeals
by Richard Carelli
The Associated Press
Washington — The Supreme Court
made it harder Tuesday for federal judges
to overturn tainted convictions and sen
tences in state courts, in a decision that
potentially affects more than 3,600 death
row inmates and hundreds of thousands
of other prisoners nationwide.
The justices, struggling to clarify their
own past rulings and a 1996 law enact
ed by Congress, left in doubt their ulti
matelntent.
“We have to wait and see how low
er courts utilize this ruling,” Texas Tech
law professor Timothy Floyd said. “It’s
now harder for state defendants to get in
to federal court, but it remains to be seen
how much harder.”
At issue was the effect of the Anti
‘Today’s ruling doesn’t
shut the courthouse
door. Some state
inmates will win.’
Larry Yackle
Boston University law professor
Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty
Act, a 1996 law aimed in part at cutting
the time between sentencing and exe
cutions in capital punishment cases.
For centuries, people convicted in
state courts have had the right to appeal
to federal courts, contending in pro
ceedings known as “habeas corpus” that
their prosecution violated some federal
ly protected right.
“This decision makes clear that the
writ of habeas corpus is not be used as a
device to go judge-shopping, running the
same matginal claims past multiple sets
of judges,” said Kent Schedigger of the
conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foun
dation.
But Larry Yackle, a Boston Univer
sity law professor who filed a friend-of
the-court brief for the American Civil
Liberties Union, said: “Today’s ruling
doesn’t shut the federal courthouse door.
Some state inmates will win.”
A series of Supreme Court decisions
limited federal court access for state pris
oners, and the 1996 law further restrict
ed federal judges’ second-guessing of state
Court sec pages
News Briefs
■ McCain might speak
about flag today
Arizona Sen. John McCain returns
today to South Carolina, a key early
loss in his failed Republican presidential
campaign, and one supporter expects him
to say the Confederate flag should be
moved from atop the Statehouse.
The flag was an issue that dogged Mc-<
Cain and Texas Gov. Geoige W. Bush as
they campaigned here in early February,
with both men saying it was best left to
South Carolinians to decide. McCain,
who seemed to have momentum after
coming out of New Hampshire with a
win, lost much of it here with a deci
sive loss to Bush.
Officially, McCain is to speak to the
South Carolina Policy Council about the
conservative agenda. However, state
House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, a
Columbia Republican who helped lead
McCain’s South Carolina campaign, said
“I think he’s going to say he supports
moving it to the soldier monument.”^
■ Gingrich says Bush’s
campaign ‘not quite up
to speed’
Richmond, Va. (AP) — George W.
Bush’s staff of advisers are “not quite up
to speed yet” in running a presidential
campaign, according to fellow Republi
can and former Speaker of the House
Newt Gingrich.
Speaking to a sold-out audience Sat
urday night, Gingrich said Bush’s team
“still has a little bit oTAustin in their
style” and isn’t fully prepared for a na-^
tional operation. He said that, in contrast/
the team advising Vice President A1 Gore
is “a more professional and tougher team.”
Bush and Gore are all but certain to
be the presidential nominees this year.
Gingrich also said first lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton had “a very good
chance” of beating New York City May
or Rudolph Giuliani in the New York Sen
ate race.
“If I were guessing right now, I would
say she probably has the edge to win,”
Gingrich said.
■ Vermont Senate
gives preliminary
approval to ‘civil
unions’ for gays 0
Montpelier, Vt. (AP) — A bill that
would create the closest thing in Amer
ica to gay marriage won preliminary ap
proval in the state Senate on Tuesday
after a debate watched by people wear
ing either white ribbons or pink stickers
to show where they stood.
The 19-11 vote came after the Sen
ate defeated two proposed constitution
al amendments designed to outlaw same
sex marriage.
"I've —£>.•
s«o»6 ^
/ m^st^In /
Helping others was a family
tradition for Amy Zaleska, of
Massachusetts. So after getting her master’s
degree, she signed up for a year of service with AmeriCorps.
Pss the country to coordinate a hunger
jram in California, where she developed new
skills and decided to pursue a career in
nonprofit management. “My project
affected so many people," Amy says.
“Now I know that one person really can
make a difference."
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