Victim of Antiqua Honeymoon Shooting Lying Brain Dead in Hospital

Ben Mullany, 31, is lying in a coma unaware that his wife of just two weeks, Catherine, was shot dead in the same attack.

The couple were on the last night of their two week holiday when intruders broke into their secluded cottage at the Cocos Hotel on the idyllic Caribbean island.

Mr Mullany was shot in the neck and as his doctor wife called for help, she was shot in the head and killed outright.

More than £60,000 reward was offered for information leading to the conviction of Mrs Mullany’s killer.

Your Ad Here

Police Commissioner Gary Nelson, a former Canadian police officer, said the reward was made up of £46,500 from Antigua’s hotel and tourism association, while an anonymous businessman offered another £18,000.

“This suspect, this person that’s committing these terrible crimes - they have to have a girlfriend or boyfriend who knows something, and I call out for them to help us,” he said.

“A tourist being murdered is a high priority, anybody being murdered is a high priority. We’ve got to get this under control ourselves.”

Among the six people questioned over the attack which took place on Sunday morning are two security guards who worked at the hotel.

One of them was supposed to be patrolling a path directly outside the Mullanys' cottage and both are still in police custody.

Your Ad Here

Dr Mullany's parents, Dai and Rachel Bowen, flew from Swansea in South Wales to Antigua with Mr Mullany's parents, Cynlais and Marilyn.

They have visited their son at Holberton Hospital several times, but are expected to make the painful decision to turn off the life support machine after his condition worsened.

Surgeon Dr Fidel Fernandez said Mr Mullany had not responded to treatment after a bullet lodged in his brain.

Despite speculation that his parents want to move him to an American hospital by air ambulance, a doctor at the hospital said they had told his parents that there was no point moving him as he is medically brain dead.

Mr Mullany’s brother Adam, 23, was thought to be arriving on the island to be with his parents.

In Wales, one of his former teachers and close family friend, Phil Davies, said it was a heartbreaking decision: "I feel desperately sorry for Ben's parents. What a choice to have to make. They have a very talented son, a very popular boy, very likable and loved by everyone.

"They were newly-weds just starting their life together and now they've got to go out there and make a decision to switch the machine off.

Your Ad Here

"I wouldn't like to be in their position. As a parent of two girls myself I can't imagine what they must be going through."

Mrs Mullany’s brother, Richard, 33, has also flown out to the island to join his parents.

A paramedic called to the scene of the shootings said it was one of the worst emergency calls she had ever handled.

The paramedic, who asked not to be named, said that their crew was called to the hotel at 5.55am on Sunday, about 50 minutes after a guest reported hearing the first shot from the Mullany room.

She said that Mrs Mullany was on the floor of the foot of the bed while her husband was sprawled on the bed.

“Mrs Mullany was lying on the floor on her back at the foot of the bed,” she said. “She was wearing her nightclothes – a vest and trousers – and it was obvious she was dead.

“Her husband was lying on top of the bedsheets. There was so much blood around his head, neck and shoulders. The mosquito net around the bed was soaked in blood, too.”

She went on: “Mr Mullany was conscious and breathing. He was moaning and trying to raise his hand. He opened his eyes and was murmuring something.”

“He responded to my voice and I comforted him as he lay there, and also all the way to the hospital in the ambulance.”

The paramedic described the scene as the “saddest sight I will ever see”, and added: “ I have seen some violent scenes in my time but these people must have been so happy on their honeymoon, and for it to end like this is truly awful.”

Police are continuing to question three men over the attacks but admitted they had no real suspects. They have also yet to find a murder weapon, which is assumed to have been a handgun.

As the investigation continued, there were claims that the couple may have been specifically targeted by intruders.

As the family struggled to come to terms with events, it emerged that another British couple were attacked in one of the £250-a-night cottages near where the honeymooners stayed.

Your Ad Here

Ian and Joyce Oliver stayed at Cocos Hotel in March last year and were woken by two intruders who stole their passports and valuables before running off.

Mr Oliver, a 51-year-old hotel manager, said: "It was the early hours of the morning when I suddenly saw a torch shining around the room.

"I jumped over my wife towards the man. One was outside the room and another intruder was inside with us.

"They had already managed to take our mobile phones, passports, cameras and other valuables. I ended up on the floor and the men ran off into the night. We were just left in total shock."

Mr Oliver, from Hutton, near Weston-super-Mare, said they never found out what happened to the thieves.

"We were driven to the police station by the hotel manager so we could make a statement, but we don't know if they ever caught the people who were in our room that night," he said.

"I would never go back there after what happened to that poor couple on Sunday.

"It's absolutely terrible."

The Cocos Hotel has received mixed reviews from visitors.

Its English-born owner, Andrew Michelin, said the two security guards were taken in for questioning immediately after the shootings. They were released from custody without charges yesterday.

Although fellow guests heard screams and gunshots from the Mullanys' secluded cottage, the guards are alleged to have called the police only after they were alerted by guests.

Mr Michelin said: "I don't know whether it's suspicious or whether they'd just gone to the bathroom."

Your Ad Here

It was also possible that they were in police custody to protect them from being intimidated by the men who actually carried out the attack.

He said the hotel had almost finished a four-month project to replace its wire perimeter fence with a five-feet high wooden one, but the stretch next to the Mullanys' cottage had not been completed.

All week, workmen have been hammering new wooden security fences into place in the area around the cottage.

Mr Michelin said the intruder or intruders had got into the Mullanys' one-room cottage by "smashing down" the bathroom door that opens on to a balcony.

Police said yesterday they were no nearer to finding the culprit.

Dr Mullany and her husband - a third year physiotherapy student at the University of the West of England - got married on July 12 and went on honeymoon on July 14.

Shooting in Knoxville Tennessee - Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church Results in 2 Dead

Authorities on Monday were investigating why an apparent stranger entered a Unitarian church and opened fire during a children's performance based on the musical "Annie," killing two, including a burly usher hailed as a hero for shielding others from gunfire. No children were hurt, but seven adults were wounded as frightened congregants dove under pews and ran from Sunday's shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, authorities said. Witnesses said some of the men present tackled a man who pulled a shotgun from a guitar case before at least three loud blasts rang out.

Your Ad Here

Jim D. Adkisson, 58, has been charged with first-degree murder and was being held on $1 million bail, according to city spokesman Randy Kenner. Church members praised Greg McKendry, 60, who died as he attempted to block the gunfire. Church member Barbara Kemper said that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us." "Greg McKendry was a very large gentleman, one of those people you might describe as a refrigerator with a head," said church member Schera Chadwick. "He looked like a football player. He did obviously stand up and put himself in between the shooter and the congregation."

A second victim was identified as Linda Kraeger, 61. She died at a hospital hours later, Kenner said. Five others remained hospitalized Monday in critical and serious condition. Two others were treated and released Sunday. The gunman's motive was not known, but Kemper said the gunman shouted before he opened fire. "It was hateful words. He was saying hateful things," she said, refusing to elaborate.

The FBI was assisting in case the shooting turned out be a hate crime, Police Chief Sterling Owen said. Police said they would hold a news conference Monday morning. The church promotes progressive social work, including advocacy of women and gay rights. The Knoxville congregation also has provided sanctuary for political refugees, fed the homeless and founded a chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, according to its Web site.

Your Ad Here

Karen Massey, a neighbor to Adkisson, told the Knoxville News Sentinel about a lengthy conversation she had with Adkisson a few years back in which she told him her daughter had just graduated from a bible college. She said she was surprised by his reaction when she told him she was a Christian. "He almost turned angry," she told the newspaper. "He seemed to get angry at that. He said that everything in the Bible contradicts itself if you read it." She also said Adkisson spoke frequently about his parents, who "made him go to church all his life. ... He acted like he was forced to do that."

Authorities searched Adkisson's duplex in a Knoxville suburb Sunday night and collected statements from witnesses and video from those using cameras to record the performance. The shooting started as about 200 people watched a show put on by 25 children. Church member Mark Harmon said he was in the first row when he heard "an incredibly loud bang." He said he thought the noise was part of the play, then he heard another loud bang and saw a woman bleeding behind him as he dove for cover.

"It seems so unreal," Harmon said. His wife told him she saw the gunman pulling the shotgun out of a guitar case. Witnesses reported hearing about three blasts from the .12-gauge shotgun and said they didn't recognize the gunman. Church members said one of the people who tackled the gunman was John Bohstedt, who played "Daddy Warbucks" in the performance. The church's minister rushed back from a vacation in North Carolina to be with his congregation. "We've been touched by a horrible act of violence," the Rev. Chris Buice said in a statement. "We are in a process of healing and we ask everyone for your prayers."

Your Ad Here

Other Unitarian congregations in the area held tearful services after the tragedy. At a packed Westside Unitarian Universalist Church in suburban Farragut, congregants prayed, sang songs and consoled each other. The shooting follows a December 2007 spree in which a man shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver, Colo., killing two, after being told he couldn't spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles away in Colorado Springs, police say the 24-year-old man fatally shot a parishioner at a megachurch and wounded four others before killing himself.

Violent weekend of SHOOTING and Death in LYNN, MA - Near Boston

Violence crisscrossed Lynn, MA during the weekend in a spasm of gunplay and a stabbing that spanned nine hours, punctuated by a fatal shooting outside City Hall.

The spate included the killing of a 43-year-old Lynn man and the arrest of a 15-year-old suspected gang member on a gun possession charge. The violence left many residents questioning their safety and prompted police to challenge witnesses to be more forthcoming.

"The city of Lynn does not accept this level of violence as the norm and certainly does not tolerate it," Lynn Police Captain Mark O'Toole said in a telephone interview.

O'Toole did not have statistics on hand, but Lynn has for years been plagued by shootings and other violence, and law enforcement officials and residents have clamored for additional police officers, he said.

Last month, the city added a new four-officer unit to assist the existing gang unit, and the police department has been getting additional help from federal authorities such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

O'Toole urged the community to be more vigilant in reporting crimes. "We need more witness cooperation. If witness cooperation isn't there, it feeds into the willingness and motivation of criminals to commit these acts of violence."

Police identified the shooting victim as Rafael Andino, who was shot in the head about 1 a.m. yesterday. Andino got out of a vehicle at a City Hall parking lot and went over to another vehicle where a passenger had called out to him, police said. As Andino approached the vehicle, with four males inside, one of the passengers opened fire, striking Andino once. The vehicle sped away, westbound on Johnson Street, police said.

In addition to Andino's killing, four other people were shot and another person was stabbed during the weekend, police said.

The first shooting occurred about 8 p.m. Saturday, at 64 Broad St., where witnesses said an argument broke out at a backyard party and spread to the front of the house, where a fight ensued. Arthur Pena, 41, of Boston, and Steven Reth, 24, of Lynn were shot in their legs. A short distance away, police found another man, Dora Dahn, 22, of Lynn, suffering from a stab wound to his back.

The victims either refused to cooperate or provided limited information, police said.

O'Toole said the incident appeared to be gang related.

Shortly after the stabbing, officers from the Lynn Police Department's gang unit arrested a 15-year-old Lynn youth for delinquency by reason of illegally carrying a firearm. The teen, who is believed to be a member of the Bloods gang, was arrested after a foot chase near 40A Neptune St. after he allegedly discarded a firearm, police said. Police were trying to determine if the arrest was connected to the shooting on Broad Street.
O'Toole said the city has for years dealt with the problem of illegal guns on its streets and has supported several measures to stem the number of weapons in circulation, including launching a gun court and pushing for tougher legislation.

more stories like thisNearly three hours after the Broad Street shooting, at 10:50 p.m., Carlos R. Pichardo, 33, of Lynn, was shot in the leg while standing outside 25 Johnson St. The shots were apparently fired from the area of Lloyd Street, a nearby cross street, police said.

The next call police received was for the shooting outside City Hall. Then, about 4:51 a.m., police responded to a report of gunfire near Eastern Avenue and Clark Street, but they found no victims. A short time later, they were dispatched to an address nearby, 40 Lambert St., where they found Paul L. Harrison, 33, of Lynn, suffering from six gunshot wounds to his lower torso and legs.

By late afternoon yesterday, no arrests had been made in either of the shootings or stabbing. Police said they received little cooperation from witnesses or the victims.

Across the street from City Hall, several people living in a four-story building said they were awakened by the commotion of ambulances and police vehicles shortly after 1 a.m. yesterday.

"Here in Lynn, it's always off and on like this. You'll have a time when nothing happens, and then all of a sudden there are a lot of shootings," said Franklin Blake, 70, a resident for 12 years, as he walked past City Hall yesterday on his way home from church. "That's why I stay at home," he said.

Cristino Acosta, owner and manager of Canon's Place, a barbershop on the first floor of the four-story building, said as he opened his business yesterday that several residents told him what had happened. Soon many of his customers were discussing the rash of shootings.

"Of course I'm worried, whenever something like that happens so close, it makes you think. People in my barbershop are always commenting about the violence in Lynn, and a lot of people are sick and tired of it. I don't feel comfortable."

O'Toole said there was no preliminary evidence to suggest that any of the weekend's attacks were related.

The violence followed an attack on May 24 in which three males were hit by a spray of bullets at a basketball park near the intersection of Warren and Commercial streets. The three sustained serious injuries.