About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 2018)
NATION 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. NORTH HALL JEWELERS Free Engraving on any ENGRAVABLE ITEM PURCHASED FROM OUR VARIETY OF GIFTS FOR HER OR HIM. Personalize your gift for THAT SPECIAL OCCASION. Jewelry Repair Watch Repair Goldsmith Watch Batteries Souvenir Jewelry We Buy Gold 1062 Thompson Bridge Road, Ste A-l Gainesville, GA 30501 678-450-7111 Team Times will host a Shred Day at The Times. Maximum of 5 boxes per car. All donations will go toward Relay for Life. Shredding provided by ^^Ldocument ^^Destruction Services, Inc. "Your Security is our Business" When you need secure destruction of confidential materials call the experts! 770-287-9605 www.ddsga.com ®he ©me$ BBB ACCREDITED BUSINESS gainesvilletimes.com NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) PRISM (Professional Records & Information Services Management) A Division of Total Information Protection Group KITIR GROUP 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. We can save you up to $2,000 on a new Trane HVACunlt 835 Oak Street, Gainesville, Georgia http://lanier-hvac.net/ Cheapest Trane in Georgia. CALL US 678-943-1351 Your Comfort is Our Priority! FOR YOUR FAVORITES 10.29.18 - 11.30.18 BestOfHallCounty.o £hc Unties qainesvilletimes.com U
