The Latest: Police say shoppers drew guns after shooting
November 3, 2017 by admin
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The Latest on the shooting at a Colorado Walmart (all times local):
5:10 p.m.
Colorado police investigating a shooting at a suburban Denver Walmart say they had to rule out customers who drew weapons as suspects after a gunman opened fire inside the store. Three people died.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila said Thursday that investigators reviewed store surveillance footage Wednesday night and saw “a few” people inside the store who drew weapons in response to the gunfire.
Avila did not know if any of them were security guards employed by the store.
Avila said officers watched the footage and ruled out each person out as a potential shooter before releasing statements identifying the lone shooter.
He says the customers who pulled out guns did not slow officers’ response to the crime scene.
Scott Ostrem was arrested Thursday, about 14 hours after the shooting.
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3 p.m.
The roofing company boss of a man suspected of fatally shooting three people at a suburban Denver Walmart says the suspect walked away from his job without warning the morning of the shooting.
David Heidt (Height) of BM Roofing said 47-year-old Scott Ostrem worked in the company’s metal fabrication shop for the last three years without any problems.
He says Ostrem left his work station around midmorning Wednesday without any explanation and never came back. The shooting happened at the Walmart that evening.
Heidt says Ostrem was a good and quiet worker who was skilled at his craft of marking metal flashing for roofs.
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1 p.m.
Authorities have identified the three people who were fatally shot at a Walmart in suburban Denver.
Coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan said Thursday that 52-year-old Pamela Marques, 66-year-old Carlos Moreno, and 26-year-old Victor Vasquez died in Wednesday night’s shooting.
Moreno was a grandfather who was a longtime maintenance worker at the Auraria Higher Education Center. It houses various state colleges and universities in downtown Denver.
Spokesman Blaine Nickerson says he was well-known and respected on campus.
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11:15 a.m.
Neighbors of the man suspected of fatally shooting three people at a suburban Denver Walmart say he was unfriendly and occasionally hostile toward them.
Gerald Burnett says he was sitting on the stairs drinking coffee one morning at his garden-style apartment building in Thornton when Scott Ostrem came down the outdoor stairway. He says Ostrem told him to move and cursed at him.
Teresa Muniz (MUHN’-is) says Ostrem never returned her greetings and once or twice swore at people for sitting in the stairways or leaving laundry in communal machines.
She says she sometimes saw him carrying a bow and set of arrows or a shotgun into or out of his apartment.
She says most people in the building know one another but she never even knew Ostrem’s name until now.
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10:40 a.m.
Police say a man suspected of fatally shooting three people inside a Colorado Walmart has a minor criminal record.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila said Thursday that 47-year-old Scott Ostrem had a minor criminal history, but Avila didn’t elaborate.
Court records show a resisting arrest charge against Ostrem was dismissed in 1999.
Court records also show Ostrem filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2015.
Ostrem was arrested Thursday, about 14 hours after the shooting inside a Walmart in the Denver suburb of Thornton.
Two men died inside the Walmart, and a woman died later at a hospital.
A motive for the shooting was unknown.
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9:45 a.m.
Police say a man suspected of fatally shooting three people inside a suburban Denver Walmart tried to flee officers in his car but was blocked by traffic.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila said Thursday that 47-year-old Scott Ostrem was arrested without incident after a brief chase that started near an apartment about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the Walmart store.
Avila says police went to the apartment and didn’t find Ostrem. But they got an anonymous tip that he was driving in the area and spotted him.
Police took Ostrem into custody after his car was blocked by traffic at an intersection. Avila declined to say if Ostrem was armed.
He says a motive for the shooting is unknown.
Two men died inside the Walmart, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Denver in a busy shopping center. A woman died later at a hospital.
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This story has been corrected to show that the tip was that the suspect was driving a car in the area.
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9:20 a.m.
Police say a man suspected of fatally shooting three people inside a suburban Denver Walmart tried to flee officers in his car but was blocked by traffic.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila said Thursday that 47-year-old Scott Ostrem was arrested without incident after a brief chase that started at a Thornton apartment.
Avila says police received an anonymous tip that led them to the apartment, which is about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the Walmart store where the shooting took place late Wednesday.
Police took Ostrem into custody after his car was blocked by traffic at an intersection. Avila declined to say if Ostrem was armed.
He says a motive for the shooting is unknown.
Two men died inside the Walmart, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Denver in a busy shopping center. A woman died later at a hospital.
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8:20 a.m.
Police say they’ve arrested a man suspected of walking into a suburban Denver Walmart and immediately opening fire with a handgun, killing two men and a woman Wednesday night.
Thornton police say 47-year-old Scott Ostrem was arrested Thursday morning, about 14 hours after he fled the store in a car. Authorities used security video to help identify him.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila said Wednesday night that the shooting appears random and there are no indications that it was an act of terror.
He says the motive is unknown.
Two men died inside the Walmart, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Denver in a busy shopping center. The woman died later at a hospital.
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6:58 a.m.
Colorado authorities have identified a man who police say nonchalantly walked into a Walmart and immediately opened fire, killing two men and a woman Wednesday night.
Thornton police are searching for 47-year-old Scott Ostrem, who they say fled in a car before officers arrived. Authorities used security video to help identify the suspect.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila says the shooting appears to be random and there are no indications that it was an act of terror.
Customers and employees hid or fled toward the exits after gunshots rang out in Thornton, a suburb of Denver. Avila says he doesn’t know how many rounds were fired.
Two men died at the store, and the woman died at a hospital. Authorities did not immediately release any other information about the victims.
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11:53 p.m.
Colorado authorities are searching for a man who police say nonchalantly walked into a Walmart and immediately opened fire, killing two men and a woman Wednesday night.
Thornton police spokesman Victor Avila says the shooting appears to be random and there are no indications that it was an act of terror.
Customers and employees hid or fled toward the exits after gunshots rang out in Thornton, which is a suburb of Denver. Avila says he doesn’t know how many rounds were fired.
Authorities are reviewing security video to identify the suspect, who fled in a car before officers arrived.
Two men died at the store, and the woman died at a hospital. Authorities did not immediately release any other information about the victims.
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Robert Mercer, Bannon Patron, Is Leaving Helm of $50 Billion Hedge Fund
November 3, 2017 by admin
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Mr. Mercer, 71, sought in his letter to employees to distance himself from Mr. Bannon, who has gone back to running Breitbart News, the divisive media outlet and hub for nationalist and far-right activism. He said he was selling his investment in Breitbart to his daughters, who also are active in conservative politics.
“I have great respect for Mr. Bannon, and from time to time I do discuss politics with him,” Mr. Mercer wrote. “However, I make my own decisions with respect to whom I support politically. Those decisions do not always align with Mr. Bannon’s.”
His departure is not likely to fundamentally alter either Renaissance’s status as one of the most profitable hedge funds or Mr. Mercer’s status as one of the most sought-after financiers in the conservative ecosystem. In fact, the firm took on $1 billion of new funds in the past month.
But it illustrates how the worlds of politics and business are colliding in the Donald Trump era. President Trump has tried to surround himself with corporate executives, but the president’s actions and rhetoric have left some of these leaders facing angry customers and employees. A number of presidential advisory councils, for example, disbanded this summer as chief executives resigned in protest over Mr. Trump’s lukewarm denunciations of white supremacists.
Mr. Mercer followed an unusual route to become arguably the most powerful person in the right-wing movement that thrust Mr. Trump into the White House.
A shy computer coder and model-train aficionado, he spent years at I.B.M. before joining Renaissance in 1993. He helped build the hedge fund into one of the industry’s most successful firms.
Beyond donating to political campaigns, Mr. Mercer became a large financial backer of Cambridge Analytica, a voter-data firm that worked closely with the presidential campaign of Mr. Trump.
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Lawmakers in Washington are scrutinizing Cambridge Analytica in connection with investigations into Russian meddling in the presidential election; the company has turned over documents to the House intelligence committee.
Mr. Mercer and his daughter Rebekah were instrumental in Breitbart’s rise into a powerful force in conservative politics.
That backing has become controversial, partly because of the site’s connections to white nationalists. One especially inflammatory Breitbart personality, Milo Yiannopoulos, reportedly has received financial support from the Mercers.
Mr. Mercer on Thursday distanced himself from Breitbart, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Yiannopoulos, who resigned from Breitbart earlier this year.
“Actions of and statements by Mr. Yiannopoulos have caused pain and divisiveness undermining the open and productive discourse that I had hoped to facilitate,” Mr. Mercer wrote. “I was mistaken to have supported him, and for several weeks have been in the process of severing all ties with him.”
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Mr. Yiannopoulos said in a statement: “I am grateful for Bob’s help in getting me this far in my career. I wish him and the family all the best.”
Activist groups recently have pressured university investment funds to pull their money from Renaissance. The college Democratic organization at Michigan State University, for example, recently began calling on the university’s endowment to withdraw its roughly $50 million investment.
This week, students at the State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island voiced concern about donations to the university from Mr. Mercer and Renaissance.
Mr. Randall of the Baltimore retirement fund compared the decision to redeem money from Renaissance to the decision of whether to invest in a tobacco company or gun manufacturer. He said Renaissance is one of the fund’s best performing investments.
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Not all investors were bothered by the controversy surrounding Mr. Mercer. The endowment for Michigan State has no plans to withdraw its money despite the campus protests, said Jason Cody, a university spokesman.
“We hire investment managers based on their long-term expected performance and fit for the overall portfolio,” Mr. Cody said. “We do not consider the personal political opinions and private activities of individual employees when making decisions.”
Steve Yoakum, executive director for Public School Retirement System of Missouri, another Renaissance investor, said the furor over Mr. Mercer was a “manufactured issue.” He said performance trumped anything else.
Renaissance has made its investors lots of money. Its three main funds that are open to outside investors are up more than 10 percent through October this year. So far this year, the hedge fund has attracted about $10 billion in new assets.
The combination of Renaissance’s consistently strong performances, its secretive nature and its leaders’ idiosyncratic personalities have created an aura of mystique around the firm. Mr. Mercer’s pivotal and prominent support for Mr. Trump shoved Renaissance into the spotlight.
For example Mr. Mercer hosts a well-known holiday costume party at his Long Island estate. Last year, the president-elect and a coterie of his top advisers were among the guests.
Honoring the ultimate hero at the Mercer “Heroes and Villians” party on Long Island. Crowd thrilled w/ surprise! pic.twitter.com/VQAyaKvs6i
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Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls)
Dec. 4, 2016
“Mercer is now such a controversial figure, that must cause all kinds of difficulties for the company,” said Nick Patterson, a computational biologist at the Broad Institute, who hired Mr. Mercer at Renaissance. He said Mr. Mercer’s prominence could make it harder for Renaissance to hire the best people.
Even as he steps down from Renaissance, Mr. Mercer is likely to accelerate his political giving in the future, according to people with knowledge of Mr. Mercer’s thinking who were not authorized to speak publicly.
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Without a day-to-day role in Renaissance management, these people said, Mr. Mercer would have more freedom and time to devote to his philanthropy and other activities, including an effort to recruit and support conservative candidates who want to replace the current Republican leadership in Congress.
Mr. Mercer’s departure could stem investor defections from Renaissance. Mr. Randall said that with Mr. Mercer leaving, the Baltimore pension fund could reconsider its request to withdraw the $33 million.
“My professional position is I don’t think this will be the last discussion concerning Renaissance,” he said.
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