Massachusetts bystander shoots madman: "A patient in a psychiatric center near the Massachusetts General Hospital stabbed his doctor this afternoon before being shot dead by an off-duty security guard, police said. The physician is in stable condition, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said at a press conference this afternoon as he described a chaotic scene. A relative said the victim was Dr. Astrid Desrosiers, a Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatrist who worked at the center. Isabellie Desrosiers, Desrosiers' sister-in-law, said she had been told by Desrosiers' sister that Astrid had been shot. Police identified the patient late this afternoon as 37-year-old Jay Carciero of Reading. The actions of the security guard, who does not work at the hospital, were hailed as "heroic" by Bonnie Michelman, head of security for Massachusetts General Hospital. “The man was tall, heavy-set, white, and looked about 35 to 40 years old. He was dressed casually, in jeans.” After at least one gunshot echoed on the fifth floor, two nurses from Schoenfeld's office went to treat the patient, who had apparently been shot in the head by the security guard, Schoenfeld said. At the press conference, Davis said that a male psychiatric patient attacked his female physician during a treatment session, stabbing her with a knife. "During the course of the stabbing incident, an off-duty security officer who was armed interceded," Davis said. "He produced a weapon and ordered the suspect to drop the knife. When the suspect did not comply, he shot the suspect."


Texas oldster fires at suspected rapist: "Law enforcement officials suspect a home invasion in Leon County is connected to a serial rapist who has been terrorizing elderly women in rural areas of Texas for months. On Saturday, police say a man broke into the home of an 81-year-old woman. The woman had a handgun and managed to fire several shots, scaring the man away. The burglar got away with some cash and other items, but the woman was not hurt. Investigators believe this incident may be connected to a series of sexual assaults on elderly women across four Central Texas counties, including Bell County. At least seven women have been attacked since January. All are over 60, widows and live alone in rural areas."


Louisiana: Drug dealer shot: "An Orleans Parish jury unanimously freed a man accused of murder after he told them that the shooting victim and his friends had infested an Algiers neighborhood with drug-dealing. Marcus Henry, 29, admitted killing Aubrey Powell, 31, in a shootout the night of Oct. 27, 2007, in the 800 block of Vallette Street. But it was in self-defense, he testified at Criminal District Court. The jury deliberated for about 3 1/2 hours Thursday before freeing Henry from the second-degree murder charge, which would carry mandatory life in prison upon conviction. Henry, however, remains in jail, serving a 30-month sentence for dealing crack cocaine. He told the jury that he is trying to rebuild his life and at the time of the shooting was working three jobs. Police arrested Henry minutes after the killing, after spotting a car barreling down Opelousas Street -- and then watching someone toss a handgun from the car. The gun was the only weapon entered into evidence at the trial, although jurors heard that multiple shots were fired that night from more than one weapon."


MA: Gun storage law defended in state’s highest court: "The Middlesex district attorney’s office argued today in the state’s highest court that a state law that requires trigger locks on stored guns is valid. But the attorney for a Billerica man charged with keeping his guns unlocked said the law should be invalidated by a recent decision of the US Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court struck down a tough handgun ban last year in the District of Columbia, the court ‘went out of its way to make clear that the right to bear arms, like all rights, is not unlimited. It can be curtailed by regulatory measures,’ said Assistant District Attorney Loretta M. Lillios.”