Rico's rants: Gutless wonder

Daniel Politi, Abby Ohlheiser, Cindy Ok, and Elizabeth Hewitt have a Slate article about the idiot in Wisconsin:

Wade Michael Page killed himself with his own gun, after being neutralized by a gunshot to the stomach by one of the first police officers to respond to the scene of the recent mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, the FBI has announced.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting spree, authorities had indicated that Page was killed by one of the police's first responders. But FBI special agent Teresa Carlson said that, while that officer did indeed shoot Page in the stomach—"thereby neutralizing the threat", he did not kill Page. "Subsequent to that wound, it appears that Page died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," she explained. Carlson said that the suicide was confirmed by security video footage, which also captured the officer's initial successful shot. "I’ve seen the video, and it was an amazing shot," she said. "Thank goodness." Carlson also told reporters that investigators are confident that Page acted alone, but that they have not yet "clearly defined a motive" for the shooting that killed six worshippers. Authorities are currently interviewing dozens of people who have known Page as they try to piece together the forty-year-old's story.
Authorities arrested Page’s ex-girlfriend, Misty Cook, on a tentative charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Although she, like Page, was noted by the Anti-Defamation League for involvement with white supremacist websites, the couple broke up in June, and police say she was not involved in the rampage.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Cook served a three-month prison sentence in 2005 after being charged with fleeing and evading police.
The latest brush strokes in the emerging portrait of Wade Michael Page, the suspected gunman in Sunday's deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin: the forty-year-old had a lengthy history of problems with alcohol, something that brought about an early end to his military career and later cost him his job as a truck driver.
The Washington Post reports that Page, who was shot and killed by police after he opened fire on worshippers, was discharged from the Army in 1998 after he was found to be drunk during military exercises. A year later, Page was convicted of driving under the influence in Colorado. Records show that he never completed the sentence, which included alcohol treatment, according to the Associated Press. Just two years ago, alcohol appears to have again got him into trouble when he was pulled over in North Carolina for driving while impaired. He was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence when he refused to take a blood-alcohol test after he drove his car off the side of a highway. While the case was later dropped for lack of evidence, it cost him his job with a trucking company. The loss of his paycheck led Page into financial trouble, according to reports, and his rural North Carolina home was foreclosed on in January of this year.
As investigators work to determine the motive behind the deadly shooting in a Sikh temple, more information on suspected gunman Wade Michael Page's apparent connections to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups are popping up online.
Newsday has a summary of the findings so far, which amount to connections to at least two white supremacist heavy-metal bands— named End Apathy and Definite Hate— and a series of postings in skinhead forums urging others to take action in support of their beliefs. "Stop hiding behind the computer or making excuses," he reportedly wrote on one skinhead site. From March of 2010 through mid-2012, Page posted about 250 messages on one such site.
Because of his extremist associations, Page was "looked at" by federal investigators "more than once," the Los Angeles Times reports. Investigators believed he might have been providing funding to a domestic terrorism group but didn't find enough evidence to open up a criminal investigation. Page had also been on the radar of both the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center for nearly a decade.
Meanwhile, Page's stepmother, Laura Page, told CBS News that he was "gentle and kind and loving" earlier in life. Laura Page, who last saw her stepson at Christmas in 1999, added, "He was a happy person and a happy child. And what happened, God only knows, because I don't."
A couple additional details have emerged about Wade Michael Page and the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The Los Angeles Times reports that the suspected gunman was administratively discharged from the Army in 1998 after a demotion. According to his military service record, an honorable discharge was withheld from Page when he left the service sometime after being demoted from sergeant to specialist. The unidentified military official who spoke with the paper would not say why Page had been demoted or what exactly disqualified Page from an honorable discharge following his half-dozen years of service. Page joined the Army in the Spring of 1992, and over the course of six-and-a-half years, he earned commendations and medals for basic achievement, good conduct, and humanitarian service.
The Associated Press reported that Lieutenant Brian Murphy, the twenty-year police veteran who remains in critical condition after being shot while responding to the shooting, was the first officer on the scene. His police chief says that, when Murphy's colleagues attempted to come to his aide outside the temple, he waved them off and instead told them to tend to the victims who had been shot inside. He was said to be wearing a bulletproof vest, which may have saved his life.
Law enforcement authorities laid out a few more details about the deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The suspected gunman is, as reported earlier, forty-year-old Wade Michael Page. While motive is still being assessed, the FBI is investigating the shooting as a possible act of domestic terrorism. As CNN noted, police say they received information indicating the suspect "may have been involved in" the white supremacist movement. That information is still unconfirmed, they said.
Other newsworthy nuggets from the morning news conference:
—The shooting victims were five men and one women, ages 41, 42, 62, 39, 41, and 84. The Oak Creek Police Department will post the names of the victims on their website.
—An officer, 51-year-old Lieutenant Brian Murphy, was shot eight or nine times after he responded to the scene. He is in critical but stable condition. Murphy was "ambushed" by the gunman outside of the temple. A second officer on the scene then fatally shot the suspect, according to the Associated Press.
—Law enforcement officials have released a photograph of a "person of interest"— not a suspect— related to the shooting. FBI Special Agent Teresa Carlson said that, as of now, they are confident that Page was the only shooter, but are investigating the possibility that others were involved. Carlson said that there were no active investigations on Page at the time of the shooting, but added, "there may be references to him in various files." She declined to discuss further details.
—The suspect purchased the gun used in the shooting, a 9mm handgun with multiple magazines, legally.
The hate-group-tracking Southern Poverty Law Center has done some digging into the suspected gunman in the deadly weekend shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. According to their research, Wade Michael Page was the leader of a white supremacist band and involved in the neo-Nazi movement.
Here's what they say:

In 2010, Page, then the leader of the band End Apathy, gave an interview to the white supremacist website Label 56. He said that, when he started the band in 2005, its name reflected his wish to "figure out how to end people’s apathetic ways' and start 'moving forward. I was willing to point out some of my faults on how I was holding myself back", Page said. Later, he added: "The inspiration was based on frustration that we have the potential to accomplish so much more as individuals and a society in whole." He did not discuss violence in the interview.
While not confirmed, the neo-Nazi association would make sense in the context of the Los Angeles Times report that the mass shooting is being investigated as domestic terrorism. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the suspect was discharged from the Army in 1998 for being drunk on duty and other misconduct. He was last stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Page was killed outside of the temple after exchanging gunfire with police officers. He'd been previously described as heavy-set, Caucasian, with a large number of tattoos. While no motive has been released, the Los Angeles Times reported that the suspect's tattoos, along with a handful of biographical details, may have prompted officials to investigate the mass murder as domestic terrorism. More details are expected at a press conference scheduled for Monday morning.
At least seven people (including the gunman) are dead and three injured after the Sunday morning mass shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
Although police say they don’t believe more than one gunman was involved in the shooting that left at least seven people dead, including the suspected shooter, at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, witnesses aren’t so sure. Reuters said that one man whose father was wounded reported there had been multiple shooters, all of whom were apparently white men. “It was a very coordinated thing,” the man told police.
Yet the details are still far from clear. One of the temple’s leaders tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the shooter was a white male in his 30s who walked up to a priest outside the temple and shot him. Then he went inside and opened fire.
At least three people are critically wounded.
Sunday, Aug. 5 at 3:25 p.m.: At least seven people were killed, including a suspected gunman, at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, police said. Hours after the shooting broke out at around 10:30 a.m. Sunday police revealed the situation was much more tragic than initially suspected when a SWAT team entered the building shortly before noon, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Four of the dead were inside the temple and three outside, including a shooter.
The suspected shooter fired on the first officer to arrive at the scene, who then fired back. The officer is now undergoing surgery at an area hospital, reports the Associated Press. Police do not believe there was another shooter involved.
Sikhism, a religion founded in South Asia more than 500 years ago, has around 27 million followers worldwide. There are roughly 500,000 Sikhs in the United States, writes the AP.
Sunday, Aug. 5 at 2:15 p.m.: At least four people appear to have been shot Sunday morning at a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The president of the temple is reportedly one of the people shot. CNN reports that at least one person seems to have been killed as a body was lying in the parking lot by the time police arrived at the scene.
Police say they “put down” one suspect outside the temple after he fired at police but they don’t know whether there are other shooters in the building. Witnesses outside the temple in the town located on the south side of Milwaukee say those inside are describing a hostage situation, according to the Associated Press.