The Battalion
TfiTE
Monday • duly 21
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OFFICERS
Continued from Page 1
“It's awful that it happened/' John
Kurzawa, a 16-year-old from Northford,
Conn, who was touring with his family,
said. “I wish it hadn't happened. I hope
as a nation we can get over it.''
The repercussions were already set
ting in, though, from the grief of the fam
ilies to the shaken colleagues of Chestnut
and Gibson who were being offered
counseling, to talk of enhanced security
at a building prized for openness.
Among the options was revived talk
of construction of a Capitol visitors cen
ter, possibly underground, that could
serve as a way station for tourists as well
as provide for greater security.
Still, Abrecht, chief of the Capitol po
lice, said there was little that could have
been done in the way of security to pre
vent Weston's attack that would have
been acceptable to members of Congress
and the public.
“He was prepared to go in there and
die and take anybody with him,"
Abrecht said on CNN's “Late Edition."
“He never got more than 20 feet inside"
the building.
The chief said the slain officers and
others who rushed to the scene “were
heroic in every way."
Officials have said Chestnut tried to
stop Weston when he burst past the met
al detector at a first-floor entrance to the
building Friday afternoon. Chestnut was
shot in the head.
A second officer who had gone to
get a wheelchair for a tourist then fired
at Weston, who ran around the corner
and opened the private door leading to
a suite of offices occupied by the
House Republican Whip, Rep. Tom
DeLay of Texas.
Gibson, assigned to protect DeLay,
shouted at numerous people in the
suite to take cover and exchanged gun
fire at short range with the gunman.
Both officer and gunman fell, Gibson
mortally wounded.
A tourist who was shot in the
episode, 24-year-old Angela Dickerson
of suburban Virginia, was released from
the hospital Saturday.
In a series of meetings Sunday, con
gressional officials were in touch with
the survivors of the two men as they at
tempted to work out the details of sever
al days of observances.
Legislative business that had been
scheduled in the House on Monday will
be replaced by tributes to Chestnut and
Asia
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Temperatures
not expected
to lower soon
Hate-crime prevention needs strengthenii
assistant attorney general Bill Lann Lee sai
DALLAS (AP) — Low tem
peratures haven't received
much attention during the
deadly heat wave searing the
Southwest. But Sunday's morn
ing low of 82 set a record for the
number of days the temperature
has not fallen below 80 degrees
in North Texas.
That kind of sustained heat,
without any respite in the morn
ings dr evenings, can be deadly,
Charles Gaylor, of the Dallas Coun
ty rnedical examiner's office, said.
“It's like running a fever: You
can't run a fever indefinitely,''
Gaylor said. “If your body tem
perature was raised during the
day when you didn't have air
conditioning, it just stands to
reason that if it doesn't cool off,
you're not going to cool off."
The heat wave has killed at
least 93 people in Texas since
June 1 and caused $1.5 billion in
agricultural damage and more
than 6,765 wildfires.
On Sunday, North Texans
braved heat of 101 degrees, the
region's 21st straight day of
triple-digit weather.
The 82-degree low was the
24th time this year that the low
temperature did not fall below
80, according to the National
Weather Service. The old record
of 22 was set in 1925 and tied in
1980's infamously hot summer.
High demand and heat-
stressed pipes caused water
mains in Fort Worth to rupture
for a second straight day Satur
day, shutting off water to two
hospitals and the city's popular
downtown tourist attractions.
Service was restored by Sat
urday afternoon, but a ban on
all outdoor watering was still in
place Sunday and city officials
implored residents to conserve.
They will meet today to dis
cuss when and how to lift the
ban, water department spokes
woman Mary Gugliuzza said.
"If everyone goes out and
turns their sprinkler system on
at the same time, that could put
quite a stress on the system
again," she said.
Forecasters say there's little,
if any, chance of rain in the
coming week.
A large center of high pres
sure squatting over the South
continues to choke off any hope
of rainfall.
"The high pressure is press
ing down on the earth and sup
pressing the formation of clouds
that could perhaps develop into
thunderstorms," Michael Mach,
a meteorologist with the Na
tional Weather Service in Fort
Worth,said.
And as long as the rain stays
away, the lows will probably
stay warmer than average.
"The main reason is that soil
conditions are quite dry, and that
soil is absorbing a tremendous
amount of heat," Mach said. “It's
like in a desert when you have
sand — (dry ground) is a more
efficient absorber of heat."
HOUSTON (AP) — Federal laws must
be toughened to prevent hate-motivated
crimes such as the June dragging death of
an African-American man in East Texas,
said Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant attorney
general for the Justice Department's Civil
Rights Division.
“We must have the law enforcement tools
necessary to ensure that when hate crimes do
occur the perpetrators are identified and
brought swiftly to justice," Lee said Saturday
at a roundtable discussion led by Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee, D-Houston.
The forum focused on a hate-crime
bill working its way through Congress.
The bill would extend the hate-crimes
statute to offenses based on disability
and sexual orientation.
Currently, a hate crime can be prosecuted
by the federal government only if it is moti
vated by race, religion, national origin and if
it prevented the victim from exercising spe
cific federally protected rights such as voting
or attending school.
“The current law provides no coverage
whatsoever on violent hate crimes commit
ted because of a victim's sexual orientation,
gender or disability," Lee said. “This means
that federal hate crimes jurisdiction cannot
be involved in some of the most horrible cas
es of violent crimes."
Gayle Rickie of Parents, Family and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays told the panel
that hate crimes against homosexuals often
go unreported.
“When a person reports such a crime, it
endangers them even more, exposing them
to further anti-gay bias," she said.
Some 64 anti-gay hate crimes were re
ar, butmoi
ported in Texas las
went unreported, Rickie said.
Also testifying was Renee Vj
daughter of James Byrd Jt, whowj
chained to a pickup truck and dras;::)
death on June 7 outside of Jasper, ra
men have been charged with cap:.]
in connection with the crime.
Mullin tearfully beseechedpa:
bers to do more to prevent such ate
“I feel frustrated that current
tentimes cannot protect America']
father," she said.
Tasty treats
|OQ|t
Photos By Mike Puentes
A
(Top left): Kevin Knabe, a junior high school student, makes a cookies ‘n’ mint ice cream
treat. Knabe said shakes tend to be a more popular item during the summer.
M^sl
(Top right): Justin Ezell, a senior finance major, makes a smoothie Sunday afternoon. Ezell
said, “It [business] has been steady this summer, even though most of the students have
went home for the summer.”
(Bottom right): Sara Lammerts, a senior journalism major, serves William Martin a snow
cone Sunday afternoon. Martin said he and his family often get snow cones to relax in the
hot summer sun. Lammerts said business has never been better in the seven years she has
run the snow cone stand.
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