MONDAY,SEPT.10.2001
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 5A
Second mass murderer in a month strikes in Sacramento area
The Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For the second time in a month, this city's police force has launched a manhunt for a suspect in a mass murder, warning those with links to the suspect that they, too, could be targets.
Police believe former security guard Joseph Ferguson, 20, of Sacramento, shot and killed three unarmed ex-coworkers and a fourth man Saturday night.
Ferguson remained at large Sunday and was believed to be heavily armed and possibly wearing a bulletproof vest, said Sacramento Police spokesman Sgt. Daniel Hahn.
Police said Ferguson made a number of cell phone calls at the time of the rampage. They said they were checking out an
alleged claim by Ferguson that he shot a person in a gold van.
The hunt for Ferguson comes three weeks after Nikolay Soltys allegedly slashed his pregnant wife's throat, then killed his aunt and uncle and their two 9-year-old grandchildren in the Sacramento area. Authorities say Soltys fled with his son, who was found dead in a cardboard box a day later. Soltys was caught 10 days later in his mother's back vard.
Ferguson lived with his father, who police do not believe is in any danger. But they were concerned for the safety of other employees at Burns Security, where Ferguson worked.
"The people we believe are in immediate danger we have evacuated, so they're safe," Hahn said.
At about 11:20 p.m. Saturday, police responding to a report of shots fired at a city equipment yard found two bodies, both female uniformed Burns security guards. Soon after, they found two male victims dead at the Miller Park Marina, about 10 miles north. One of the men was a uniformed Burns guard, and the other appeared to be a worker at the Marina, Hahn said.
Ferguson is believed to be driving a green car stolen from a former co-worker, whom he handcuffed to a tree at the Sacramento Zoo, around 1:30 a.m. Sunday. Police said the car's owner was unharmed.
Ferguson was suspended for unknown reasons last week from his job with Burns Security, Hahn said. Police said he made a
series of calls to former co-workers Saturday night threatening to kill them and club- and moviegoers in the city's busy Old Sacramento district.
All four victims were unarmed and riddled with gunshot wounds, Hahn said. Police found AK-47 rounds, shotgun rounds and 9 mm handgun shells at the crime scenes.
Police are also checking out a report that one of the slain women was Ferguson's ex-girlfriend, and that she may have warned the company that he was planning a rampage.
Police were still trying to account for Burns employees Sunday morning, Hahn said. He said Ferguson's father told the police "numerous weapons" were missing from the house.
Religious conflict shatters Nigerian city
The Associated Press
JOS, Nigeria — Frightened Muslims and Christians huddled together for safety at a police training grounds in this northern Nigerian city yesterday after three days of bloodletting between their two communities left smoke rising into the sky and charred corpses in the streets.
Blackened homes and hundreds upon hundreds of burned cars, some still smoldering, lined the road into the hilltop city of Jos, a peaceful community of 4 million people until tensions between Muslims and Christians exploded Friday evening after Muslim pravers.
Heavy police patrols and troops called out by President Olusegun Obasanjo were taking control verterday.
Police sealed the borders of
Plateau state to keep violence from spreading beyond Jos, the capital.
The Associated Press counted nine bodies, many blackened, one with a burned tire still around its neck, on one road into town.
Security forces manned roadblocks every few hundred feet and intercepted marauding, rival gangs of Christians and Muslims.
"Don'tyou understand? They are killing our people!" implored one of about 30 Muslims stopped by police as they drove through the streets in an open-bed truck.
The men, made to kneel in a culvert by a police school, pleaded for merciful treatment by authorities. Arms taken from them — steak knives, pick axes, swords and clubs bristling with
nails — lay nearby.
On the grounds of the police school, 750 Muslims and Christians — men, women and children — crowded together, clutching small bags and other goods grabbed in hurried flight.
Jos, a one-time hill resort of Nigeria's former British rulers, exploded into violence over what some residents said was a simple slight — a Christian woman trying to cross a street where Muslim men were gathered in Fridav prayer.
Prized by missionaries — today, many of them American — for its good weather, the predominantly Christian city until now largely had been spared the Muslim-Christian clashes that broke out elsewhere in northern Nigeria last year.
clashes since several northern states introduced Sharia, or Islamic law.
Thousands have died in vicious Muslim-Christian
Jos, most of whose government leaders are Christians, had ruled out implementing Sharia. Religious tensions had been rising recently following a Muslim's appointment as chairman of a state poverty-alleviation committee.
In Jos yesterday, police repelled a Muslim gang that attacked some of the few Christians who ventured out for church services.
Frightened residents described determined killers keeping up hit-and-run attacks
— singling out victims, then closing in with guns and machetes when armed patrols were out of sight.
The KU Hillel Foundation would like to formally invite you to a Halliday Dinner...
Erev Rosh Hashanah Dinner
Monday, September 17, 6pm Kansas Room at the Student Union Tickets: $10 (in advance) $12 (at the door)
Reserve a table for your friends and family!
Space is limited, contact us today. (785) 749-5397 or ssl@kuhillel.org
THOMAS FOX AVERILL
Reading/Booksigning
from the new novel
→
Hardcover $22.95
BlueHen Books/
Pengiu Punatam
Thursday, September 13 4:00 - 5:00pm
Mt. Oread Bookshop
A coming-of-age story set amidst a multi-cultural family restaurant/catering business. Filled with food lore and recipes
SECRETS OF THE TSIL CAFE
BOKSHOP
BOOKSHOP LEV2
864-4431
E-MAIL: BOKSHOP@UKSEN.EDU
F-MAIL: EOREA.LINK@UKSEN.EDU
THOMAS KRY AVELL
IS PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH
AND WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE
AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Stop by our booth in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall from Sept.24th-28th to sign up & see the CAR!
KU
CREDIT UNION
An Affiliate of 66 Federal Credit Union
TOURNAMENT ENTRY FORM
NAME:___
KUID:___
FRATERNITY/
SORORITY:___
ADDRESS:___
PHONE:___
TEAM MEMBERS:
register online
KU SWINGERS TOURNAMENT ENTRY FORM
1 ]
e-mail
2 ]
e-mail
3 ]
e-mail
4 ]
e-mail
METHOD OF PAYMENT:
CHECK ENCLOSED: Y/N
Make checks payable to KU Credit Union
Bring to 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall before Friday, Sept. 28
KU SWINGERS GOLF TOURNAMENT