What To Know Today
Nursing assistant fatally shoots coworker at Philadelphia hospital, wounds two police officers. 43-year-old Anrae James, who also worked as a nursing assistant, died in the incident that occurred early Monday morning at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. After the shooting, the alleged perpetrator fled the scene and shot and wounded two responding officers as they tried to apprehend him. Police shot and injured the suspect before detaining him; he is expected to survive. Officials said the suspect had multiple guns and was wearing body armor. James’s father described the victim as a mild-mannered father of three. “My son’s legacy is his kids,” William James told The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was the second fatal workplace shooting in a week in Philadelphia after a security guard was killed at the nonprofit where he worked. Live in Philadelphia and need help? Up The Block is our resource hub for Philadelphians affected by gun violence.
A DEA agent was killed and two officers were wounded in a shooting on an Amtrak train. Three members of a joint task force from the DEA and local police were conducting a sweep on a stopped train in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday when someone on the train opened fire, the police chief said. Another DEA agent was critically wounded while a local police officer is in stable condition. The shooting suspect died and another person was taken into custody. It was the first DEA agent killed in the line of duty since 2013, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page.
Americans bought an estimated 1.6 million guns last month. The seasonally adjusted number includes approximately 990,000 handguns and 620,000 long guns. The haul represents a 20 percent drop from last September, but is still the 16th-highest month on record, according to our newly updated gun sales tracker, which also features a new graphic on yearly firearm sales estimates:
Prosecutors ask judge to sentence two men accused of “race war” plot as domestic terrorists. Two members of the white supremacy group The Base were arrested days before a gun rights rally in Virginia in January 2020, where they allegedly planned to commit violence and foment racial strife. They both pleaded guilty to federal gun and other charges. Now, ahead of sentencing later this month, U.S. attorneys are asking that each man receive a 25-year sentence based in part on their allegation that the men considered assassinating a Virginia politician. While there is no specific federal law against domestic terrorism, prosecutors often use the charge to increase sentences. A homemade arsenal: The Trace has reported on how members of The Base built up a cache of DIY weapons.
Data Point
1,050 — the number of vases of flowers now on display in New York City’s Battery Park, commemorating each victim of fatal gun violence across the state last year — a 29 percent rise over 2019. [Giffords]
