Shooting incidents in America are happening so frequently that those that do make it into news reports tend to blend together after a while. Last week, there was a mass shooting at a hospital at about the same time another incident was happening somewhere else - I forget where. A few weeks earlier, the shooting of two random people in a Kroger supermarket was almost completely ignored when a gunman engaged in a premeditated mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. (Both of these stories managed to displace the story of the MAGAbomber, who sent out pipe bombs - none of which went off - to various critics of Donald Trump.)
This Thanksgiving, something different happened.
Thanksgiving was traditionally a holiday for getting together with family for a big feast. The next morning, fanatical shoppers would head out on "Black Friday" to score deep discounts on all sorts of stuff. Some stores remained open on Thanksgiving night, usually convenience stores and the like, and everyone felt bad for the poor slobs who had to work while everyone else was sitting down to the big meal.
Then some retailers had the bright idea to get a head start on Black Friday sales by having them on Thursday. Suddenly, lots of people, employees who were forced to work and shoppers looking to jump the line for bargains, were missing their Thanksgiving dinners.
Which is how we wound up with a crowd of shoppers at a mall in Alabama. (According to CNN, the Riverchase Galleria in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover.) Two people - a 21-year-old male and an 18-year-old male - got into an argument. What was it about? Who was in the right, and who was in the wrong? We don't know - specifically, I don't know as I write this. What we do know - what has been reported, what I have read - is that the 21-year-old pulled a gun and shot the 18-year-old.
Now, you may be wondering: Who takes a gun to the mall on Thanksgiving? The mayor of the city where the shooting took place said "You just don’t bring guns to a crowded mall and that’s what happened tonight." Yet the same article notes "Several shoppers were seen with their guns drawn." So the answer is: several people, at least. In this particular mall, at least.
The 21-year-old fled the scene. He was approached by armed police responding to the incident, because of course there were armed police at a shopping mall on Thanksgiving, and he was shot and killed.*
The 18-year-old who was shot did not die, at least not yet. Neither did the 12-year-old girl who was shot in the back as all this was happening. No one is saying for sure who shot her - the original gunman, the responding police, or someone else.
The mayor also said "This was an isolated incident. Unfortunately, it happens all of the country." I think when something happens all over the country, it isn't an isolated incident.
This is America, and a 12-year-old girl was hit by a stray bullet during a shooting that followed an argument at a pre-Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving at a shopping mall.
Happy Thanksgiving, from One Nation Under the Gun.
*UPDATE, 11/25/2018:
Oh, it gets even MORE American. Police shot and killed the wrong guy.
From CNN:
(CNN) An armed 21-year-old man killed by an officer at a mall in Alabama on Thanksgiving night "likely did not fire" the shots that wounded two people and sent terrified shoppers running for cover, police said Friday.
The shooting at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, about 10 miles south of Birmingham, happened Thursday, one of the year's busiest shopping days.
Authorities mistakenly thought Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr. fired the rounds that left an 18-year-old and a 12-year-old hospitalized, Hoover police spokesman Capt. Gregg Rector said in a statement.
Police initially said Bradford opened fire after an altercation with the 18-year-old and an officer fatally shot him as he fled the scene. But late Friday, police changed that story, saying that while Bradford was involved in "some aspect of the altercation" and was armed with a handgun, he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the two others.
"We regret that our initial media release was not totally accurate, but new evidence indicates that it was not," Rector said.
The error came to light after Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigators and crime scene experts spoke to witnesses and examined evidence, police said.
"Investigators now believe that more than two individuals were involved in the initial altercation," Rector said. "This information indicates that there is at least one gunman still at large."
The officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave pending an investigation, police said
The Jefferson County district attorney informed Hoover police Friday that the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency will take over the lead role in the shooting investigation from the county sheriff's office, Rector said. Hoover police will "assist and cooperate fully" in that inquiry and will "conduct an internal but separate investigation" of the officer-involved shooting, he said.
From Facebook:
American police just killed another "good guy with a gun."
Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford Jr., better known as EJ, the son of a police officer, was an active duty officer for the Army, home for Thanksgiving.
Murdered by police yesterday in a mall shooting in Alabama.
Not only did police in Hoover, Alabama murder EJ, for 24 hours they plastered his face all over the news saying he was the mass shooter.
They did a press conference saying they killed the shooter, showed his picture, then said the community was safe.
THE SHOOTER IS AT LARGE.
EJ's family and friends reached out to me this morning. They are not just devastated, they are furious.
Police publicly and local media both publicly blamed him for the mall shooting.
He never fired a single shot.
After police shot EJ, he was still alive, struggling.
Family and friends just sent me a horrendous video of police not only refusing to provide EJ first aid as he fought for his life, but literally abusing him on the ground thinking he was the mall shooter.
It was heartless.
EJ Bradford, Jr. was beloved all over Birmingham. This morning I have heard from neighbors, friends, even teachers from elementary to high school - who LOVED this man.
Served safely in the Army, then shot & killed by American police in Alabama while home for Thanksgiving. #JusticeForEJ
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