THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009
NEWS
5A
CRIME
Ten killed in shootings
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gunman in rampage through rural Alabama had list of people he wanted dead
Family members of shooting victim James Alfred White, 55, son-in-law Earl Johnson, back left, his wife Kay Johnson, right, and their son, no name given, leave White's house in Samson, Ala. Wednesday White who was an uncle of the suspected gunman, was shot Tuesday during a shooting rampage that killed 10 people across two rural Alabama counties.
BY JESSICA GRESKO AND DESIREE HUNTER
Associated Press
Associated Press
SAMSON, Ala. — The gunman who killed 10 people and committed suicide in a rampage across the Alabama countryside had struggled to keep a job and left behind a list of employers and co-workers he believed had wronged him, authorities said Wednesday.
The list, found in his home, included a metals plant that had forced Michael McLendon to resign years ago. Also on the list was a sausage factory where he suddenly quit last week and a poultry plant that suspended his mother, District Attorney Gary McAllevi said.
McAlley was quoted as telling The Dothan Eagle that McLendon also listed people at the sausage factory who had complained about such things as not wearing earplugs and slicing the meat too thin.
"We found a list of people he worked with, people who had done him wrong," the district attorney said outside the charred house where the rampage began.
But investigators offered no immediate explanation for why he target relatives and other people who weren't on the list as he fired more than 200 rounds in a roughly 20-mile trail of carnage across two counties in southern Alabama Tuesday.
In the span of about an hour, McLendon, 28, set the home he shared with his mother on fire, killed five relatives and five bystanders and committed suicide in a standoff at the metals plant.
"The community's just in disbelief, just how this could happen in our small town," said state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, from the nearby town of Slocomb. "This was 20 something miles of terror."
It was not clear how long McLen-
don had been planning the attack, but authorities said he armed himself with four guns — two assault rifles with high-capacity magazines taped together, a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol — and may have planned a bigger massacre than he had time to carry out.
"I'm convinced he went over there to kill more people. He was heavily armed," Sheriff Dave Sutton said.
Among the dead were some of the very people who might have helped explain what set off McLendon — his grandmother, his mother, an uncle and two cousins.
This much is clear: McLendon had a hard time keeping a job over the years, and had been forced to resign from his position at a local Reliable Metals plant in 2003, authorities said. Investigators would not say why.
That same year, he tried to join the police academy, but lasted only a week before flunking out, authorities said. His next known job came in 2007, at a nearby sausage plant operated by Kelley Foods.
The company said he quit last week but was considered a team leader and was well-liked by employees. However, the district attorney said co-workers reported him for not doing things right. McAlley also said McLendon had a list of eight lawyers, a clue that he might have been planning legal action.
The rampage started around 3:30 p.m. at McLendon's mother's home. Authorities said he put her on an L-shaped couch, piled stuff on top of her and set her ablaze. Before he left, he also shot four dogs.
McLendon then drove a dozen miles and gunned down three other relatives and two others on a porch and shot his grandmother at a house next door, sending panicked bystanders fleeing and ducking behind cars. His uncle's wife, Phyllis White, sought refuge in the house
of neighbor Archie Mock
"She was just saying, 'I think my family is dead. I think my family is dead," Mock said.
Then, McLendon shot three more people as he drove toward the metals plant, firing from his car.
At the metals plant, McLendon got out of his car and fired at police with his assault rifle, wounding Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey, authorities said. Then he walked inside and killed himself.
The victims included the wife
and 18-month-old daughter of sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers, who was sent to chase McLendon. Myers did not know at the time that his wife and daughter were among the dead. His 4-month-old daughter was wounded in the attack.
"I cried so much yesterday, I don't have a tear left in me," said Myers, who did not know McLendon. "I feel like I should be able to walk in the house and my wife would be there, my baby girl climbing on me."
COURTS
Famous Obama image focus of copyright suit
BY JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The Associated Press countersured an artist Wednesday over his famous image of Barack Obama, saying the uncredited, uncompensated use of an AP photo violated copyright laws and signaled a threat to journalism.
The artist, Shepard Fairey, sued the not-for-profit news cooperative last month over his artwork, titled "Obama Hope" and "Obama Progress," arguing that he didn't violate copyright law because he dramatically changed the image.
The artwork, based on an April 2006 picture taken for the AP by Mannie Garcia, was a popular image during the presidential campaign and now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
According to the AP lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Fairey knowingly "misappropriated the AP's rights in that image." The suit, also names Fairey's companies, asks the court to award AP profits made off the image and damages.
"While (Fairey and the companies) have attempted to cloak their actions in the guise of politics and art, there is no doubt that they are profiting handsomely from their misappropriation," the lawsuit says.
Fairey said he looked forward to "upholding the free expression rights at stake here" and disproving the AP's accusations.
"They suggest my purpose in creating the poster was to merchandise it and make money. It wasn't. My entire purpose in creating the poster was to support Obama and help get him elected," the artist said in a statement. He initially made the image available as a poster, donating the proceeds
to charity or using them to make more posters, he said.
The red, cream and light-blue image depicts a pensive but determined-looking Obama gazing upward, with the caption "HOPE" or "PROGRESS." It went on to become a familiar sight on buttons, shirts and other objects, garnering Fairey a thank-you letter from Obama and more than $400,000 in profits, according to published reports.
Fairey's lawyers acknowledge the image is derived from Garcia's photograph, made at the National Press Club in Washington while Obama was a senator.
But Fairey's lawsuit says he didn't violate copyright law because he transformed the picture into a "stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that creates powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message."
The AP argues the Los Angeles-based artist's image amounted to "blatant copying" and commercializing of another's work. Fairey piggybacked on the AP picture's "distinctive characteristics," including its composition, light and shadows, the cooperative's lawsuit says.
"This lawsuit is about protecting the content that The Associated Press and its journalists produce every day, with creativity, at great cost, and often at great risk." AP President and CEO Tom Curley said in a statement. "The journalism that AP and other organizations produce is vital to democracy."
The dispute turns partly on the legal concept of fair use, which allows exceptions to copyright law. Courts decide based on factors including how much of the original is used, what the new work is used for and how the new work affects the original.
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