27 School Shootings Have Taken Place So Far This Year.

(Breaking Update on TLS Today: Multiple Fatalities, Including Several Children After ‘Active Shooter Incident’ at Texas Elementary School – Suspect Dead)

Update: Multiple people are dead, including children after a man opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

As many as 16 people are dead, including at least 2 children, according to reports.

Texas – Several students on Tuesday were taken to the emergency room at Uvalde Memorial Hospital after a shooting took place at Robb Elementary.

The suspect is dead.  The shooter’s motive is unclear.

Multiple people were taken to the hospital and a suspect was in custody Tuesday afternoon after an active shooter incident at a Texas elementary school, police and other officials said.

Several students were being treated in the emergency room at Uvalde Memorial Hospital after the shooting at Robb Elementary according to a Facebook statement. One adult and a child were being evaluated at University Health, the hospital said in a tweet.

A University Health spokesperson said she could not confirm if the patients are shooting victims, but added their injuries are related to the shooting at the school. The conditions of those being treated and the ages of the victims were not released.

The shooting at the Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas  killed at least two people and hospitalized a dozen children marks the 27th school shooting this year. Local police said the shooter behind Tuesday’s incident is in custody.

This comes just 10 days after a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. that took the lives of 10 people.

Education Week has been tracking school shootings since 2018. According to its database, there have been 118 such incidents since they began their database.

Of the 26 school shootings with injuries or deaths:

• 40 people were injured
• 6 people killed (5 students or other children and one staff member)

The organization tracks shootings where a firearm was discharged, and where any person (other than the suspect) has a bullet wound resulting from the incident. Education Week also only includes incidents that happen on a kindergarten through 12th grade school property or on a school bus, and that occur when school is in session or during a school-sponsored event.

Parents were encouraged to pick up their children.

The FBI reports are always late, always a year late, but how do we relate to it in Lakewood?

Report states more than a 50% increase from previous year.

As usual, as in Murphy’s recent “legislation” no recommendation of self-protection is mentioned. The focus is on “psychological healing” for kids, after the fact. Gee, thanks. I don’t see a “Psychological Healing” amendment. But I see a Second Amendment Constitutional Right to Bear Arms

Lakewood needs proactive CCW protection. Licensed, and trained guards and members.

This year’s report contrasts with last year’s report where anti-Semitic hate crimes were prominently mentioned.

The 2020 FBI report on hate crimes in the United States shows that such crimes are continuing to rise, with a total of 7,759 hate crimes reported in 2020, compared to 7,517 in 2019, as previously reported on The Lakewood Scoop.

“Anti-Jewish bias incidents accounted for 57% of the hate crimes that are considered by law enforcement to have been religiously motivated, aligning with findings that Jews are disproportionately targeted by bigots and racists, especially considering that Jews account for less than 2% of the US population.

Among the incidents against Jews, 56% targeted individuals directly, 53% involved vandalism or property destructions, 33% involved intimidation, and 10% entailed either simple or aggravated assault.

In New Jersey, 38% of anti-Jewish incidents were classified as intimidation, and 14 % of incidents occurred at a school, with another 8% of bias incidents occurring in a park or playground.”

Before I refer to the report below, let me emphatically state: We must remind ourselves that there have been several active shooter incidents against Jewish schools and Synagogues as well as bombs, vandalism, and thefts that could have been averted by trained guards and members carrying legal firearms.

An Avowed Anti-Semite Was a Donor to CUPON and a Jan. 6th Rioter

Also reported in The Lakewood Scoop, Timothy Hale-Cusinelli, 31, got into a boatload of legal trouble when he was arrested following his participation at the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol. He had been working as a contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, New Jersey, and frequently peddled anti-Semitic hate on his YouTube channel.

Citizens United to Protect our Neighborhoods of Jackson and Manchester NJ (CUPON JMOC) is a 501(c)4 nonprofit organization, community based group of residents who seek to ensure the quality of life and Township Ordinances are upheld for “all” citizens. “We are a grassroots Jackson organization focused on land use and zoning issues that are not compliant with township ordinances, zoning laws and/or housing violations that affect our community, neighborhoods and aesthetics of our township.” Need I say more?

“Excuse Me, If the Facts Are Facts, That Doesn’t Necessarily Make It Anti-Semitic”

In January, The New Jersey NAACP suspended one of their board members for six months after he railed against the local Jewish community during a meeting.

The Montclair, New Jersey, branch of the NAACP voted to suspend education Chairman James Harris for six months, according to the Montclair Local. The unanimous vote, which took place on Monday, came after he argued that the Jewish community gentrified Montclair and made housing less affordable.

Harris argued, the “Jewish community controls the Board of Education and the City Council, but they spend huge amounts of money sending their kids to the yeshivas, and they’ve gutted the budget for the black and Latino students who are left in public schools,” at a meeting on Dec. 30.

He also said that residents feared “being replaced by these strangers who really weren’t friendly,” referring to Orthodox Jews. Harris also noted that “people are very, very quick to label anything that’s critical of Israel or the Jewish as anti-Semitic. Excuse me, if the facts are facts, that doesn’t necessarily make it anti-Semitic.”

“My personal statement was meant to focus on the impact of gentrification on lower socioeconomic communities in Montclair, NJ. Instead, I used a regional example of Lakewood, NJ real estate and public education funding. Unfortunately, I used terms and examples that have been interpreted as anti-Semitic.”

The comments are like those made from Jersey City Board of Education member Joan Terrell. Following a deadly attack at a Jewish market in Jersey City, Terrell unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade on Facebook arguing that the shooters “knew they would come out in body bags,” and wondered, “What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message?”

Terrell remains on the board despite calls for her resignation from Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, though she refused.

“This One’s for You JC”

How about: In February, a snowplow operator in Lakewood has been suspended for an alleged anti-Semitic act. In a video recorded by his coworker and posted to Facebook the snowplow operator allegedly purposely slammed two Orthodox Jewish men with snow. The caption of the video said, “This one’s for you JC.”

The victims are getting a lot of support from the community and online.

“They decided to fight the weather to go to synagogue go to pray, and this is what happens to them,” said Rabbi Avi Schnall of Agudath Israel of America. “So, it definitely it was a real shake up to them, but they’re strong.” And while the Facebook post has been taken down, the evil behind the act lingers and angers.

“To post this on their Facebook page to say as if there was nothing to be embarrassed about, there’s nothing to be ashamed about. I can go ahead and harass a couple of Jews walking to synagogue on their Sabbath and it’s a joke,” said Schnall.

Authorities In Lakewood, New Jersey Have Arrested a Man Accused of a Violent String of Crimes Against Members of The Orthodox Jewish Community.

Dion Marsh, 27, is facing several charges including three counts of attempted murder, bias intimidation, and carjacking. The charges stem from a series of violent incidents that authorities say happened on Apr. 8, 2022, in both Jackson and Lakewood townships.

Officers from the Lakewood Police Department were called to the area of Martin Luther King Drive and Pine Street for reports of a carjacking. Officers were told that a suspect approached a 2016 Toyota Camry, assaulted the driver, and stole his car.

Security camera footage shows the victim clinging to the side of the Camry as the suspect drives through a residential neighborhood.

Dion Marsh, 27, is facing several charges including three counts of attempted murder, bias intimidation, and carjacking.

Hours later, police say a pedestrian was struck by a dark-colored vehicle around Central Avenue and Carlton Avenue. The victim was brought to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in stable condition.

That same evening, officers responded to reports of a stabbing near Pine Circle Drive and Lakewood-New Egypt Road. Police say the victim was stabbed in the chest and taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in critical, but stable condition.

Just after 8 p.m., officers in Jackson Township were called to Galassi Court where police say another person was struck by the Camry stolen in Lakewood. That victim was also taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in critical, but stable condition.

Investigators linked Marsh to all four violent attacks and arrested him at his home in Manchester Township, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said in a release.

The victims are members of the Orthodox Jewish community.

“The coincidence that all three were Hasidic Jews to me seems like enough to warrant at least a look that this is a biased incident if you had all the statements which corroborate this it’s pretty clear,” Scott Richman from the Anti-Defamation League of New Jersey and New York said.

On August 7, Buford O.Furrow bought a used red Chevrolet van in Tacoma, Washington and loaded it with five rifles, two pistols, 6,000 rounds of ammunition and a flak jacket. Furrow considered attacking three Jewish institutions: the Skirball Cultural Center, the American Jewish University, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Museum of Tolerance, but security measures presented too much of a problem.

On August 10, 1999, at around 10:50 a.m. PT, white supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr. walked into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles, and opened fire with an Uzi sub machine gun, firing 70 bullets into the complex. He opened fire, spraying bullets from right to left, leaving smoke and more than 70 casings on the ground. When he was done, a receptionist, a camp counselor and three boys were wounded. The gunfire wounded five people: three children, a teenage counselor, and an office worker. Shortly thereafter, Furrow murdered a mail carrier, fled the state, and finally surrendered to authorities.

Furrow fled 275-miles in an $800 taxi ride from Los Angeles, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, ending the manhunt by walking into an FBI office to confess, saying “You’re looking for me, I killed the kids in Los Angeles.” Furrow also stated that he wanted his shooting to be :

“A wakeup call to America to kill Jews”

The injured included a 5-year-old boy, Benjamin Kadish, who was hit in the abdomen and leg, losing 50 percent of his blood; two 6-year-old boys, Joshua Stepakoff and James Zidell, a 16-year-old girl, Mindy Finkelstein, who was hit in her right thigh and shin; and 68-year-old receptionist Isabelle Shalometh, who was grazed on the arm and back.

Let’s not forget The Seattle Jewish Federation shooting which occurred on July 28, 2006, at around 4:00 p.m. PT, when Naveed Afzal Haq shot six women, one fatally, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle building in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Haq was convicted in December 2009 and sentenced to life without parole plus 120 years.^[1] Police have classified the shooting as a “hate crime” based on what Haq is alleged to have said during a 9-1-1 call. King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng described the shooting as “one of the most serious crimes that has ever occurred in this city”.^[

And, On April 13, 2014, two shootings occurred at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and Village Shalom, a Jewish retirement community, both located in Overland Park, Kansas. A total of three people were killed in the shootings, two of whom were shot at the community center and one shot at the retirement community. The gunman, 73-year-old Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. of Aurora, Missouri, originally from North Carolina, was arrested during the attack and was subsequently tried, convicted of murder and other crimes, and sentenced to death. Miller, a former Klansman, neo-Nazi, and former political candidate, died in prison in 2021 while awaiting execution.

The shootings began at around 1:00 p.m. (CDT) at a rear parking lot of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City, near the entrance to the White Theater. The gunman first fired a handgun at two men. One of the men managed to escape immediately, while the second man tried to flee in his car. A bullet struck the shoulder bag of the man’s seat, but he escaped uninjured. The shooter then fired at two males, 69-year-old Dr. William Lewis Corporon and his 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, who were hit by gunfire as they pulled into the parking lot inside their car. Corporon died at the scene of a shotgun wound to the head, while Underwood died of handgun wounds at a hospital.

The Deadliest Attack Ever on The Jewish Community in The United States

The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was a antisemitic terrorist attack in the form of a mass shooting, which took place at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation^[a] synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The congregation, along with New Light Congregation and Congregation Dor Hadash, which also worshipped in the building, was attacked during Shabbat morning services on October 27, 2018. The perpetrator killed eleven people and wounded six, including several Holocaust survivors. It was the deadliest attack ever on the Jewish community in the United States.

A lone suspect, identified as 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers, was shot multiple times by police and arrested at the scene. Bowers had earlier posted antisemitic comments against HIAS (formerly, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) on the online alt-tech social network Gab. Dor Hadash had participated in HIAS’s National Refugee Shabbat the previous week. Referring to Central American migrant caravans and immigrants, Bowers posted a message on Gab in which he wrote that “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” He has been charged with 63 federal crimes, some of which are capital crimes. He has pleaded not guilty. He separately faces 36 charges in Pennsylvania state court.^[

More Recent Incidents:

• 2019 – Shooting at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California.
• 2019 – Failed plot to bomb the Temple Emanuel Synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado and poison its members. The would-be perpetrator pled guilty in 2020.
• 2019 – 2019 Jersey City shooting. Shooting at a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey
• 2019 – July 28, 2019, a member of synagogue in N. Miami Beach, FL, 68, was shot in the legs, as he was unlocking the front doors of the synagogue prior to a religious service. The suspect, Carlints St. Louis of Hallandale drove up in a black Chevrolet Impala and shot him multiple times.
• 2019 – The Monsey Hanukkah stabbing. Five people were stabbed during Hanukkah festivities at the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York.
• 2020 – On May 30, 2020, synagogue in Los Angeles was vandalized with graffiti of “Free Palestine”.
• 2021 – Attempted forced entry in Bal Harbour synagogue on February 7, 2021. Arab speaking man with package who began shouting praying in Arabic.
• 2022 – Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis. Four hostages taken at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.

Every Jewish Institute, Shul, School or Other Venue Needs to Have Armed Security And/or Licensed Concealed Carry Members

At a summit in 2020, sponsored by the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce and the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness, featured security firms offering services and government officials offering grants. Held last month in the glass-ceiling ballroom of a synagogue in Lakewood, near the Jersey Shore, the gathering reflected both broad Jewish concern for the unprecedented spike in anti-Semitic violence around the country—and varying views on how to handle it.

“The hate is spreading—people are getting inspired to just push hate and inflame others with wrong messages that they hear in social media or other places,” said Duvi Honig, founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. “And that’s why it’s so important to extinguish those fires.”

But how to extinguish the fires? At tables set up around the perimeter of the ballroom, there were glossy fliers on active shooter defense systems from a company called Defendry, and representatives from Percentage International, whose security consultants evaluate vulnerable points of entry at synagogues and recommend means of protection.

At the table for IronRock Security, director of operations Moshe Fromowitz said his company (founded by former Lakewood Police Chief Rob Lawson) supplies armed guards to more and more Jewish schools. Until two and a half years ago, he said none of the Jewish schools in Lakewood had guards—now, about 35 do.

Some attendees at the summit, though, weren’t buying services. They said they were better off taking matters into their own hands. Chaim Endzweig said he recently organized a group of 135 Jews to learn martial arts and do firearms training. Endzweig recently registered his own firearm.

The Number of Gun Permit Applications Is Rising in Jewish Communities In New Jersey

“We’re tough, tough Jews—strong, powerful—and we’re trying to get a message across that we’re not weak,” Endzweig said. He attributed much of the anti-Semitism to bullying, and a perception that it’s easy to pick on Jews. “It’s not going to happen anymore…We’re armed and we’re ready and we’re going to fight back.”

“Atrocities Could Happen Again”

Duvi Honig, the summit organizer, said all his grandparents survived the Holocaust, and his elders have long warned that those atrocities could happen again. “My grandmother used to wake up middle of the night screaming because she was in Auschwitz,” he said. “And I remember her screaming.”

Gov. Phil Murphy Signs Legislation but Doesn’t Include Active Protection

In January, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation requiring school security drills to be age-appropriate and to prevent the traumatization of schoolchildren.

Legislation pushed by Murphy since last April, supporters of the bill said it will strike an appropriate balance between ensuring that students are informed and ready for threats that schools face in the present day, while being sensitive to the mental health needs of schoolchildren. Among other requirements, the legislation prohibits the use of fake blood, real or prop firearms, or the simulations of gunshots or explosions in school security drills.

“Unfortunately, school security drills are a reality of the environment that our students are living in,” said Murphy in a press statement signing the bill Jan. 10. “These necessary exercises are proven to save lives but may also traumatize young children if not conducted in an appropriate manner. “

Details of New Law

“This legislation will ensure that school security drills provide students with the information and preparedness that they need to stay safe in emergency situations, while also taking steps to prevent drills from having a harmful impact on the mental health of our schoolchildren.”

A-5727/S-3726 requires the following guidance and procedures for school districts conducting school security drills when students are present:

• Drills will include clear, developmentally, and age-appropriate messaging to students and staff at the conclusion of the drill that the event is a drill, and no current danger exists.
• Drills cannot include the use of fake blood, real or prop firearms, or the simulations of gun shots, explosions, or other sounds or visuals that may induce panic or a traumatic response from a student or school district employee.
• Drills must be accessible to students with disabilities and mental health conditions and provides all necessary accommodations for these students.
• School districts shall provide written notification to the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in the district following completion of a school security drill, which notice shall be provided to the parent or guardian by no later than the end of the school day on which the school security drill is conducted.
• School districts may permit emergency personnel access to the buildings and grounds of its schools for school security drills that are scheduled outside of school hours and during such times as students are not present.
• District shall review and update their school security drill procedures using a process that coincides with the review of the school safety and security plan and collects input from emergency personnel, parents and guardians of students enrolled in the district, teachers and staff employed in the district, mental health professionals, and student government representatives from multiple grade levels.
• School districts will annually track data on such measures and information as are required by the Commissioner of Education and shall report the data to the commissioner.

• Former State Senator Loretta Weinberg, a sponsor of the bill in the upper chamber, said the bill looks to ensure students who have enough stress in their lives do not gain “one more layer of trauma” from these drills.

Weinberg’s Comments

 “When it comes to so-called ‘active shooter’ drills in our schools, we need to make sure we are consistent in our messaging, so as to make sure students know the difference between a drill and a real-time event,” said Weinberg. “While we need to prepare our students for the worst, we also need to continue to address the gun issue directly—especially in regard to ease of accessing firearms and the mental health issues that so often play an underlying role in the nation’s rising epidemic of gun violence.”

• Acting Department of Education Commissioner Dr. Angelica Allen McMillan offered that the new requirements strike a balance to ensure students and school staff safety as well as aiming to prevent drills from causing undue confusion or alarm.
• “We have always maintained the need for schools to provide a balanced, age-appropriate approach to school safety – a point that we have stressed in the numerous training programs and drill observations the Department has conducted, and continues to conduct,” said  Allen McMillan.

Outside Backing

• The updated procedures have the backing of the state’s teacher’s union as well as numerous gun violence prevention advocates 
• “We have to keep our students safe, and that includes protecting their mental and emotional health,” said New Jersey Education Association President Sean M. Spiller. “We applaud Gov. Murphy and the Legislature for taking this step to ensure that the safety drills intended to protect students from physical harm are also designed to protect them from unnecessary fear and trauma.”
• “This bill provides necessary, modernized reforms to the way our schools practice active shooter drills, to ensure that they are trauma-informed and age-appropriate for students,” said Amy Faucher, a volunteer with the New Jersey chapter of Moms Demand Action.
• Mark Barden, CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund, and father of Daniel who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy added, “We must do all we can to protect our children from the trauma of a school shooting, beginning with our safety drills.”

Having said all that here’s the FBI’s Press Release:

As usual, no recommendation of self-protection is mentioned. The focus is on “psychological healing” after the fact. Gee, thanks.

In 2021, the FBI designated 61 shootings as active shooter incidents. In these incidents, 103 people were killed and 140 wounded, excluding the shooters. For the period 2017–2021, active shooter incident data reveals an upward trend. The number of active shooter incidents identified in 2021 represents a 52.5% increase from 2020 and a 96.8% increase from 2017. Today, the FBI released the Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2021 report.

Casualty counts are higher for 2021 (243) when compared with 2020 (164), indicating a 48% increase. The casualties in 2021 represents the third highest total casualty count over the last five years (2017–2021). 2021 saw the highest number of deaths (103) since 2017, a 171.1% increase from 2020 and above the average (92.3) for the period 2017–2020. There was an 11.1% increase in people wounded (140) in 2021 compared with 2020 (126), but below the average (253) for the period 2017–2020.

For 2021, the FBI observed an emerging trend involving roving active shooters; specifically, shooters who shoot in multiple locations, either in one day or in various locations over several days.

The 61 incidents in 2021 were carried out by 61 shooters. Sixty shooters were male, and one was female. Individual shooters carried out all the incidents. The age range of the shooters was 12 years old to 67 years old. Two shooters wore body armor. Thirty shooters were apprehended by law enforcement, 14 shooters were killed by law enforcement, four shooters were killed by armed citizens, one shooter was killed in a vehicle accident during a law enforcement pursuit, 11 shooters committed suicide, and one shooter remains at large.

The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Implicit in this definition is the shooter’s use of a firearm. The active aspect of the definition inherently implies the ongoing nature of an incident, and thus the potential for the response to affect the outcome, whereas a mass killing is defined as three or more killings in a single incident.

The FBI remains dedicated to assisting federal, state, local, tribal, and campus law enforcement in its active shooter prevention, response, and recovery efforts, as well as to training its international law enforcement partners. The FBI remains steadfast in its efforts to train private citizens, as it is imperative that citizens understand the risks faced and the resources available in an active shooter situation.

Since the 2013, the FBI has partnered with the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to help deliver Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) to law enforcement. ALERRT is the national standard for active shooting response, regardless of responder agency, and incorporates tactical best practices and lessons learned from previous active shooter incidents.

This report is part of a series of FBI active shooter-related products published since September 2014. These reports are not intended to explore all facets of active shooter incidents but rather intended to provide law enforcement officers, other first responders, corporations, educators, and the public with a baseline understanding of active shooter incidents.

The FBI also supports the Don’t Name Them campaign. This campaign encourages media, law enforcement, and public information officers to shift their focus from the perpetrators of active shooter incidents toward the victims, survivors, and heroes who stopped them, as well as the communities that come together to help in the healing process. To learn more, visit dontnamethem.org.

Persons suspected of planning an active shooting should be immediately reported to law enforcement. For additional resources on the active shooter threat, please visit Active Shooter Resources.

The commentary in this article is the sole opinion of the author.