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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 5A
Pentagon se nding
5,200 troops to border
BY ROBERT BURNS,
COLLEEN LONG
AND JILL COLVIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A week
out from the midterm elec
tions, the Pentagon said Mon
day it is sending 5,200 troops,
some armed, to the South
west border in an extraordi
nary military operation to
help stop illegal crossings by
a caravan of migrants mov
ing slowly north in Mexico,
still hundreds of miles from
the U.S. border.
President Donald Trump
himself, eager to focus voters
on immigration in the lead-up
to the elections, escalated his
threats against the caravan,
tweeting: “This is an invasion
of our Country and our Mili
tary is waiting for you! ”
His warning came as the
Pentagon began executing
“Operation Faithful Patriot,”
described by the commander
of U.S. Northern Command
as an effort to help Customs
and Border Protection stiffen
defenses at and near legal
entry points. Advanced heli
copters will enable border
protection agents to swoop
down on migrants, he said.
“We’re going to secure the
border,” Air Force Gen. Ter
rence O’Shaughnessy, the
Northern Command leader,
said at a news conference. He
spoke alongside Kevin McA-
leenan, commissioner of Cus
toms and Border Protection.
Eight hundred troops
already are on their
way to southern Texas,
O’Shaughnessy said, and
their numbers will top 5,200
by week’s end. He said troops
would focus first on Texas,
followed by Arizona and then
California.
The caravan of 3,500 has
shrunk from a peak of about
7,200 migrants a week ago,
but a second caravan of about
600 had formed and was
clashing with federal police
on a bridge from Guatemala
to Mexico.
The military operation
drew quick criticism.
“Sending active military
forces to our southern bor
MOISES CASTILLO I Associated Press
Central American migrants reach the shore on the
Mexican side of the Suchiate River after wading across,
on the the border between Guatemala and Mexico, in
Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Saturday, Oct. 20.
der is not only a huge waste
of taxpayer money, but
an unnecessary course of
action that will further ter
rorize and militarize our
border communities,” said
Shaw Drake of the Ameri
can Civil Liberties Union’s
border rights center at El
Paso, Texas.
Military personnel are
legally prohibited from
engaging in immigration
enforcement. The troops
will include military police,
combat engineers and oth
ers helping on the southern
border.
Customs and Border Pro
tection is pushing a surge in
personnel in response to the
caravan of Central Ameri
can immigrants. The mili
tary troops are intended
to assist the border patrol,
not engage directly with
migrants.
The White House is also
weighing additional border
security measures, includ
ing blocking those traveling
in the caravan from seeking
legal asylum and keeping
them from entering the U.S.
The escalating rhetoric
and expected deployments
come as the president has
been trying to turn the cara
van into a key election issue
with just days to go before
the midterm elections that
will determine whether
Republicans maintain con
trol of Congress.
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MATHEWS, NORTH CAROLINA
Student dies after fight
ends in gunfire at school
BY JONATHAN DREW AND
TOM FOREMAN JR.
Associated Press
A North Carolina high
school student shot and killed
a fellow student during a fight
in a crowded school hallway
Monday, officials said, call
ing the incident a case of bul
lying that “escalated out of
control” which had students
scurrying to escape and par
ents rushing to campus to
check on their children.
The student accused of
firing the fatal shot was
arrested quickly as investi
gators secured the campus
at Butler High School in Mat
thews, about 12 miles south
east of downtown Charlotte.
Matthews Police Depart
ment Capt. Stason Tyrrell
identified the suspect at a
news conference as Jatwan
Craig Cuffie, a 16-year-old
ninth-grader. He is charged
as an adult with first-degree
murder and is being held in
the Mecklenburg County jail.
Online records don’t indicate
whether he has an attorney
who could comment.
Tyrrell identified the vic
tim as Bobby McKeithen, 16,
a lOth-grader at Butler.
Students remained inside
with the school on lockdown
for about two hours after the
shooting.
According to Tyrrell, a
school resource officer was
in the school cafeteria at
7:14 a.m. when he and secu
rity officers heard a com
motion and encountered
students running in an adja
cent hallway. Tyrrell said
the resource officer encoun
tered the victim, tried to give
aid and called for a school
lockdown.
Within five minutes, a
teacher notified school offi
cials that she was with the
student who committed the
shooting, Tyrrell said, adding
that the teacher said the stu
dent admitted to the shooting
and was ready to surrender.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Schools Superintendent Clay
ton Wilcox said the shooting
appears to have stemmed
from a case of bullying “that
escalated out of control.”
Neither Wilcox nor Tyrrell
said which student was being
bullied. Tyrrell said several
people apparently knew
there would be an altercation
at the school, but police had
no information on it prior to
the incident.
“Someone asked me how
could someone, especially a
student, come onto one of our
campuses with a loaded gun,
and I wish I had an answer
to that,” Wilcox said. “There
really is no easy answer. We
do not have metal detectors
in our schools. We do not
search our students on the
way into school. Our schools
and students rely on coop
eration between and among
each other. And today, that
simply wasn’t enough. ”
Wilcox said that many stu
dents witnessed the shooting,
and counselors and psycholo
gists were available.
“There were many kids in
the hallway when this hap
pened,” he said.
“We’re incredibly sad
dened by the fact that we
had a loss of life on one of
our campuses today. What
makes it doubly difficult is
that it was one of our students
who was the shooter,” he
said.
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