1 killed, 2 wounded in shooting at Long Island grocery store
WEST HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — A man suspected of shooting three workers inside a manager’s office at a Long Island grocery store Tuesday, killing one of them, was arrested after fleeing the scene and remaining at large for several hours, police said.
Nassau County Executive Laura Curran tweeted around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday that Gabriel DeWitt Wilson was in police custody. Information on charges and a lawyer who could speak on Wilson’s behalf wasn’t immediately available.
The shooting happened around 11 a.m. inside an office upstairs from the shopping floor at the Stop & Shop supermarket in West Hempstead, Nassau County police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said.
There were about a “couple hundred” shoppers inside the store at the time, he said.
“They told us to just run and get out, and that’s what we did,” shopper Laura Catanese told News 12 Long Island.
The names of the victims had not been made public. The man who was killed was a 49-year-old store employee, Ryder said. The two wounded were hospitalized and were conscious and alert.
Police identified the suspected gunman as Wilson and gave a date of birth for him indicating he is 31 years old. He had been employed by that store, but it was unclear whether he was still working there, Ryder said.
Wilson was wearing all black and carrying a small handgun as he fled westbound on Hempstead Turnpike, Ryder told reporters at a news conference. He was arrested after police converged on a neighborhood in nearby Hempstead, which is east of the grocery store.
Afghan withdrawal: Ina blunt assessment Tuesday, the top U.S. general for the Middle East told Congress it will be extremely difficult but not impossible for the U.S. to find, track and take out counterterrorism threats in Afghanistan once all American troops are withdrawn.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said that armed drones, which can now get to a location within minutes from bases in Afghanistan, will have to be positioned much farther away. And he acknowledged that the U.S. has no agreements yet with neighboring countries to base troops, but is working on a plan.
“I don’t want to make light of it, I don’t want to put on rose-colored glasses and say it’s going to be easy to do,” McKenzie told the House Armed Services Committee, adding that if the U.S. needs to go back into Afghanistan because of a threat, it will require significant intelligence support. “It will be harder to do that, it is not impossible.”
McKenzie declined to say what recommendations on Afghanistan he gave to President Joe Biden, who last week ordered the full withdrawal of the more than 2,500 remaining U.S. troops by Sept. 11. He said he had full opportunity to provide his advice to the president.
U.S. officials have made it clear, however, that military commanders did not recommend the full, unconditional withdrawal.
Bush criticizes GOP: George W. Bush says the Republican Party he served as president has become “isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist” and says he’s especially concerned about anti-immigration rhetoric.
“It’s a beautiful country we have and yet it’s not beautiful when we condemn, call people names and scare people about immigration,” Bush told NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday.
Bush, who was in New York to preside over a naturalization ceremony, said his new book, “Out of Many, One: Portraits of America’s Immigrants,” aims to “elevate the discourse.”
The former president did not mention Donald Trump, who aggressively curbed both legal and illegal immigration during his tenure. Trump, a fellow Republican, disparaged the migrants as invaders and “illegal aliens” and, as a candidate, referred to Mexicans as “rapists.”
Iran, Saudis hold talks: A first round of direct talks between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran signaled a possible de-escalation following years of animosity that often spilled into neighboring countries and at least one still-raging war. But few expect quick results.
The talks, hosted by Iraq earlier this month in Baghdad, were confirmed Tuesday by an Iraqi and a Western official.
They came as the Biden administration paves the way for reopening diplomatic channels in the region. Saudi Arabia is recalibrating its regional position after losing an unflinching supporter in President Joe Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. Iran, meanwhile, has calculated that a gradual detente with Riyadh, a longtime U.S. ally, will work in its favor during renewed nuclear talks with Washington and world powers.
Battle to succeed Merkel: Armin Laschet, the governor of Germany’s most populous state, emerged victorious Tuesday from a bruising power struggle and became the candidate of Angela Merkel’s centerright bloc to succeed the longtime chancellor in the country’s September election.
Laschet, 60, now faces another big battle: to connect with voters and win over frustrated fellow conservatives who backed his more popular rival, Markus Soeder.
Their Union bloc was the last major political force to nominate a candidate for chancellor in the Sept. 26 parliamentary election. Merkel isn’t seeking a fifth term after nearly 16 years in power.
The race turned into a heated duel after both Laschet, the leader of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and Soeder, who leads its smaller Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, declared their interest in succeeding Merkel.
Soeder conceded after the CDU leadership backed Laschet in a late-night vote, pledging that “we will support him without a grudge, with all our strength.”
Woman applies to run against Assad: A woman from the capital Damascus has applied to run for president of Syria, the parliament speaker said Tuesday, making her the first female to make a bid for the country’s top job. The largely symbolic election is certain to be won by President Bashar Assad.
The presidential election, the second since the country’s civil war broke out 10 years ago, is to be held May 26.
Speaker Hammoud Sabbagh said Faten Ali Nahar, a 50-year-old Damascus resident, has nominated herself for the post. Little is known about her. The parliament speaker provided her age, place of birth and her mother’s name in the announcement. There were no reports on who she is on social media.