3 of boy’s grandparents killed at ball field | Chicago Tribune
DANDRIDGE, TENNESSEE — Gunfire erupted after a 10-year-old boy’s baseball game, leaving three of his grandparents dead and his father wounded, officials said Tuesday.
The shooting began Monday night as players and families were leaving for the parking lot. When it stopped, the boy–the subject of a lengthy custody dispute–was seen standing among the bodies of his family.
“Maybe he was in shock. . . . He was walking around and it seemed he didn’t have an expression on his face,” said Wayne Treadway, treasurer of the South Jefferson County Little League.
Austin Shands’ paternal grandparents, Ellen Shands, 62, and Jerry Shands, 63, were killed. His father, Jerry “Brent” Shands, 39, was seriously wounded. His maternal grandfather, Samuel Noe, 61, also was dead.
A gun was recovered. Authorities weren’t saying who fired it.
5 responses so far ↓
1 kjm // Sep 22, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Request from S. Baskerville
Mitchell Sanderson, A Hero Who Needs Our Help
September 22, 2006
Vox Populi
By Stephen Baskerville
The battle between David and Goliath is being fought anew in North Dakota.
Mitch Sanderson is waging a heroic stand there against the slings and arrows of the Mitchell Sanderson, A Hero Who Needs Our Helpdivorce industry. Arrayed against Mitch is virtually the entire North Dakota government, as well as the bar associations, social workers, feminists, and all the others who have discovered how lucrative it is to take control of other people’s children. All these groups are receiving help from outside the state who realize the earth-shaking importance of what Mitch has done.
Mitch is the driving force behind the North Dakota Shared Parenting Initiative – a ballot referendum that will provide for equal parenting and child support levels at reasonable levels that do not subsidize broken homes. This summer Mitch and other parents collected sufficient signatures to place the referendum on the November ballot.
For decades now policymakers have bellyached about the “fatherhood crisis,†which they use to procure federal funds for useless government psychotherapy programs. The North Dakota Initiative is the first effective measure that will actually do something about this problem. It is no wonder the divorce industry is bringing out the big guns against him. The State Bar Association of North Dakota, the North Dakota Association of Counties, the state’s Department of Human “Services,†even the federal government are pulling out all the stops to suppress this measure. In the most appalling action yet, a federal HHS official, using his office for political purposes that are clearly improper and probably illegal, issued an ultimatum to North Dakota: Pass the initiative and we will cut off all federal funding. Such an act of federal bullying against citizens exercising participatory democracy may be unprecedented. HHS Assistant Secretary Wade Horn, to his credit, recently refused to back this threat, but state officials are ignoring him.
Mitch and the North Dakota Coalition for Families and Children have already achieved heroic feats. They collected over 17,000 signatures for the Initiative. They have attracted the attention of television, newspapers, and internet pundits like Wendy McElroy. In some cases, they have turned them from hostility to sympathy.
But they cannot stand alone much longer. It is well known that referenda are won by whoever has the most money and time to wage a media battle. Mitch and his allies are vastly outgunned. Though the public clearly favors the measure – this is clear from the speed with which they collected the signatures (and by a similar but non-binding referendum in Massachusetts that garnered over 85% of vote in 2004) – with each passing day, the divorce industry has more time to wage their propaganda onslaught against Mitchell, against the truth, and against families.
From now to Election Day, every parents’ group, every parent, every citizen in America should turn their eyes to North Dakota. Mitch and his friends are in desperate need of volunteers to help with the campaign and of money – not only to compete with the wealthy lawyers and other interests who have mobilized against the citizens of North Dakota, but perhaps even to survive.
This is no exaggeration. Mitch himself has gone into debt to pay for the campaign and is now vulnerable to arrest if he cannot meet his extortionate “child support†payments. This is only one weapon wielded by the divorce industry to silence its critics. We must hang together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.
On the other hand, Mitch Sanderson and his friends have already sent shock waves through the divorce industry and, thanks to them, we have an opportunity to bring this behemoth under control. The name of Mitchell Sanderson deserves to be known wherever people fight for freedom. The rest of us can help these courageous parents at no risk to ourselves. Now is the time for all parents who love their children and their country to stand up and act.
You can contact Mitch Sanderson and the North Dakota Coalition for Families and Children at info@ndspi.org. Their web site is http://www.ndspi.org.
Stephen Baskerville is President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children (www.acfc.org). His latest major article, “What God Hath Joined Together…â€, is published by MovieGuide.com.
Posted in Vox Populi at 8:49 am by Stephen Baskerville | Permalink |
2 Kevin Merck // Sep 22, 2006 at 5:15 pm
From: “Mitchell Sanderson” Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: Kevin Merck
Subject: RE: Shared Parenting
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 22:17:35 -0500
Kevin,
We are just preparing for the media campaign. The fiscal note is
someone of
an issue also.
Mitch
—-Original Message Follows—-
From: Kevin Merck
To: info@ndspi.org
Subject: Shared Parenting
Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:15:00 -0700 (PDT)
I’m in the — area on business and should be here for a while. Let
me
know if there is anything I can do to help. I will have sunday
afternoons
free.
Kevin Merck
This is an email from Mitch in response to an email I sent volunteering my help. I’m a little discouraged by his response. I haven’t heard from him since, but I intend to contact him again soon, hopefully with a better result. In my opinion, we need “boots on the ground†to set up banners and pass out flyers in front of Wal-Mart and any other well traveled public places. Not everyone can afford to donate cash and I don’t think wasting money on TV commercials will solve anything. Unless there are some billionaires out there supporting our cause, who can buy significant TV time, it probably won’t reach very many people.
Every single NCP in America, that can find a way, needs to converge on the State of North Dakota to send a clear and resounding message to these criminals that the days of kidnapping our children are over. The recent event in Washington, to listen to fathers’ rights advocates repeat what we’ve all heard them say many times, is a major waste of money. If the money spent on that event had been spent on the campaign in North Dakota, we would be much better off. Maybe the money should have been used to charter buses for a trip to North Dakota.
This is “Show timeâ€. Get your sorry asses up to the State of North Dakota, or stop your whining. That goes for all you long winded fathers’ rights celebrities too. Glenn Sacks should put his money where his mouth is and broadcast his show from North Dakota. Who knows Glenn, maybe you could find a way to profit from actually helping the movement, and bring that shyster buddy of yours too.
Kevin Merck
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting itâ€.
Thomas Paine
“Without an agitator in your washing machine, all you would have is a bunch of dirty drawersâ€.
Al Sharpton
3 Wyatt // Sep 23, 2006 at 10:05 am
Hey Kev, man your writings on this blog are the best I’ve heard. You have the problem of NCP’s nailed; MONEY. But please don’t quote that racist asshole sharpton. His quote is ok in the proper context, but what have I seen, and continue to see, of this sad excuse of a person disgusts me. He’s a self-serving government welfare Whore and Active Racist, and totally discredited and embarrassed himself during the Tawana Brawley incident.
4 Kevin Merck // Sep 23, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Beau:
Glad to see you’re hanging in there. I have to admit I don’t know much about Sharpton, all I know is that he ran for the Femocratic nomination along with a field of morally bankrupt morons the last time around. However, what did impress me about the man is that he wasn’t afraid to say what was on his mind, nothing like that wishy-washy lackey that won the nomination. It was during one of the debates that I remember Sharpton making that comment and I think it’s a valid point.
You don’t have to like the man, or agree with his politics, but he may still have something to say that we can learn from. He probably isn’t the first to say something like that, that’s just where I heard it.
Adolph Hitler was a man we all love to hate, and for very good reason, but to paraphrase one of the worst tyrants in history:
“The bigger the lie you tell; the more people that will believe it.†Has an undeniable element of truth to it. It’s one our enemy has utilized to its full potential.
Hope to see you in North Dakota. Take care.
Kevin
5 wdfields // Sep 29, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Wow! Remarkable efforts and works.
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