North Carolina shooting leaves at least five dead

An armed man killed five people this Friday, including an off-duty police officer, and wounded several more in Raleighin the southeastern United States, the mayor of this city announced at night.

In a press conference at night, the mayor of the city, Mary-Ann Baldwin, explained that “at approximately 8:00 p.m., the police of Raleigh had indicated that he surrounded a suspect in an area home.”

Shortly after the city police wrote on Twitter: “the suspect has been arrested.”

Among the injured, whose number is unknown at the moment, is a police officer from the canine unit who is out of danger of death, according to Baldwin.

The first shots were fired shortly after 5:00 p.m. (local time), on a pedestrian walkway in the city of almost 500,000 inhabitants, the capital of North Carolina.

According to local media, a large contingent with security forces was immediately deployed to find the perpetrator of the shooting.

“I saw him pass in front of my house, in the garden. He had a long-barreled hunting rifle and was dressed in camouflage,” a witness who did not want to give his last name told local network WRAL, identifying himself as Robert.

“Immense mourning”

The visibly upset mayor said “we must do more,” referring to the shootings that regularly take place in the United States, where the spread of firearms and ease of access are the subject of constant national debate.

“We must end this rampant violence in USA. We must respond to gun violence. Our task is immense. And tonight our mourning is immense, “he lamented.

Some 49,000 people were killed with firearms in 2021 in the country, against 45,000 in 2020, which was already a record. The equivalent of 130 daily deaths, half suicides.

But it is the mass shootings that shock the country from time to time and at the same time illustrate the ideological gap between conservatives and progressives on how to prevent these kinds of tragedies.

Recent American history is marked by periodic massacres that foster the idea that no part of everyday life is safe.

The mass shooting at a Florida high school on February 14, 2018 in Parkland sparked a broad national movement, with youth as pioneers, to demand stronger oversight of guns in America.

However, the US Congress has not pushed for ambitious legislation, and many members of Congress lie under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the main arms lobby in the country.

The only recent legislative advances remain marginal, sticking to criminal and psychiatric background checks over gun purchases.

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