HALIFAX—Before her planned death earlier this week, a Halifax woman asked Canadian politicians to change the medically assisted dying law so that others like her might live out more days, and responses from Ottawa have been varied. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said the government had no plans to amend the two-year-old assisted dying law, but another Liberal parliamentarian said that wasn’t the end of the story.

 Since Audrey Parker’s assisted death on Nov. 1, Canadian politicians have given varied responses to her plea for legislative change. ( Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press )

 “Although the minister may say we’re not imagining any changes right now, I think we have to see what Canadians are thinking of,” said Darren Fisher, MP for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour. “If Canadians are staunchly in favour of something, then that’s our job to go out and try to advocate for those things on behalf of Canadians,” he added. Read more:

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 Thousands sharing, commenting on Audrey Parker’s final public words Advocate dies ‘peacefully’ after plea for changes to Canada’s assisted-death law Fisher’s riding is one of four in the Halifax area where Audrey Parker lived until her death on Nov. 1. Parker, 57, was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2016. When she decided to end her life she was in excruciating pain from tumours in her bones, and had recently learned that the cancer had spread to her brain lining. Since Canada’s medically assisted dying law requires last-minute consent from the patient, Parker chose to go before her condition worsened further.

 If she could have made an advance request, she said she would have stayed until after Christmas. Parker made a public call for the government to amend the law to eliminate late-stage consent in situations like hers.

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 “We’re not considering changing something in the legislation,” Wilson-Raybould told reporters on Nov. 2. In an interview on the same day, Fisher said he felt differently. “(My constituents) are basically saying that they support (Parker) and my personal view is I’m supportive of it as well,” he said. In Parker’s final Facebook post she said the assisted dying law was “poorly thought out,” and asked the public to contact their MPs about changing it. Thousands have responded to Parker’s post, many of them expressing support for her request. In addition to Fisher, the other three Halifax-area MPs were asked for interviews Friday. Geoff Regan and Darrell Samson did not respond to the request. Andy Fillmore responded with an emailed statement, saying in part: “Many constituents have sent me emails containing (Parker’s) final Facebook post, adding their own reflections. It’s clear that she has left an impact on our community, and on the ongoing conversation related to medical assistance in dying.” “We know that medical assistance in dying is a deeply personal choice, and I believe it is important that Canadians have access to it if they choose.” Fillmore’s email went to on to say that he “looked forward” to reading an upcoming report on the issue. When Ottawa first drafted the medically assisted dying law, it asked the Council of Canadian Academies — a non-profit organization that operates on federal funding — to review three unresolved issues, including advance requests. A report on that review is due to be tabled at the House of Commons by the end of this year. Fisher said the report would not offer recommendations, but rather a summary “of the evidence of all the different perspectives.” “I do feel that we could have gone a little bit further on this and I’m looking forward to seeing that report come in December,” he said. Stephen McNeil, Nova Scotia’s Liberal premier, offered his respect to Parker in a statement after her death, calling her “courageous.” He otherwise left her request to the federal government. “This debate will continue at the national level, and she will be a major voice in the conversation that I’m sure Canadians are going to have.” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage echoed McNeil’s response, saying in an interview Friday that he was “impressed at her courage and tenacity,” but that there was nothing he could do at a municipal level to address her plea. With files from Mitchell Kedrosky and The Canadian Press Taryn Grant is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on education. Follow her on Twitter: @tarynalgrant

 Read more about: ||||| Audrey Parker was assessed and approved for medically assisted death, but because federal law requires that she be lucid at the time of death her plans were derailed

 For weeks, Audrey Parker had been organizing what she called her “beautiful death”, carefully planning every detail of her final days, and even writing her own obituary.

 Parker, a television makeup artist, was in excruciating pain as cancer crept from her breast into her bones and brain, and intended to end her life before the suffering became too overwhelming.

 But because Canadian federal law required that she was lucid at the time of death – and fearing that the combined effects of cancer and medication could rob her of that clarity – Parker was forced to end her life months before she had intended to die.

 With the help of a nurse, Audrey Parker passed away on 1 November, surrounded by friends and family in her Halifax home. She was 57.

 Parker’s lost battle for greater autonomy in medically assisted death has reignited a debate over Canada’s legislation on medically assisted death, which critics say forces terminally ill people to choose two equally unpalatable choices: a death that is premature, or one that is painful.

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 Parker was not the first to use Canada’s medically assisted death laws – more than 3,700 already have done so since the country’s supreme court paved the way for physician-assisted death in 2015 – but she quickly became one of the country’s most prominent advocates for changes in the law.

 “The world lost a person that had such spirit, who kind of always knew she was going to do something really, really important,” said Kim King, a close friend who was with Parker during her last moments. “And in the end, she did.”

 Legislation passed in 2016 allowed anyone above the age of 18 with a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” to apply for physician-assisted death. Individuals must undergo consultations and be examined by two clinicians in order to gain approval for the process.

 Parker was assessed and approved, but a key provision in the law – that she be of full mental capacity when the decision to terminate life is made – derailed her plans.

 “When we realized the implications of the late-stage consent, it was very disturbing,” said King. “She was so courageous to face her death head on.”

 If she wanted to die on her own terms, it would have to be when she was still mentally sound. While she wanted to live to see another Christmas, she told friends she couldn’t run the risk of waiting too long.

 “She was worried about how this cancer had ravaged her body so aggressively that if she waited too long, she would lose capacity and then she would be completely denied the right to have an assisted death,” said Shanaaz Gokool, head of Dying with Dignity Canada. “And then she would die in a manner she knew will be horrible.”

 For clinicians and bioethicists, Parker’s fight encapsulates an ongoing debate within the medical community surrounding how to best help patients in their final days.

 “A lot of us knew when the legislation came down, that this would be one of the next battle grounds,” said Chris Kaposy, a bioethicist at Memorial University. While the law has produced troubling situations like Parker’s, it also aims to protect vulnerable people, said Kaposy.

 Clinical ethicists often grapple with instances of patients with late-stage dementia, some of whom have requested physician-assisted death – but later forget these wishes and go on to live contented lives, he said.

 “You have to walk that line between honouring legitimate directives, where people are suffering … But also you want to be able to avoid situations where you’re obligated to essentially kill people who are happy.”

 Only three countries permit people to plan their death beforehand, and do not require competency at the moment of death: the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.

 But according to King, “[Parker] didn’t suffer from dementia, she wasn’t vulnerable. And she was very clear about what she wanted.”

 Parker’s death has prompted a fresh debate on end-of-life planning in Canada, said Dr Jeff Blackmer, vice-president of the Canadian Medical Association. “If you agree with assisted dying or not, one of the silver linings to this has been a more open discussion about death and dying in Canada – and about the choices that we make at the end of our lives,” he said.

 A government panel which is studying the existing legislation will release its full report in December, but will not make any recommendations, and the government will not be required to act.

 The day after Parker’s death, the federal justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, expressed no intention of amending the current law. “We’re not considering changing something in the legislation,” she told reporters, adding that she and the government were “confident in the legislation”.

 While the minister’s position disappointed King and other friends, they see it as a reason to keep pushing hard for changes in the law, continuing the battle Parker fought to the end.

 “Until she took her last breath yesterday, she never wavered,” said King. “It was just so beautiful.” ||||| Open this photo in gallery Friends massage Audrey Parker's hands and feet at the end of her last party. (Photojournalist Chris Donovan has a family relationship with Audrey Parker) Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail

 After a decadent breakfast of lobster eggs Benedict prepared by a friend in her modern high-rise kitchen Thursday morning, Audrey Parker plans to tidy up, climb back into her king-sized bed and receive a lethal injection.

 Ms. Parker, who lives in Halifax, is three years into a battle with Stage 4 breast cancer she chose to “lean into” rather than resist because of its ravenous spread to her bones and brain. A former ballroom dancer and makeup artist with an affinity for the brand Chanel, Ms. Parker decided immediately after her diagnosis that she wanted to end her life on her own terms. She qualified to do so under Canada’s assisted-dying legislation. That law requires patients to be lucid enough to consent to their own deaths – and Ms. Parker feared she wouldn’t be if she waited too long.

 The 57-year-old effervescent divorcee has taken pleasure in scripting what she calls her “dream death,” with the exception of one key element: choosing the actual day she will die. On this, Ms. Parker says her pen was unfairly forced by federal legislation requiring patients to be able to confirm their wish to die moments before a fatal injection is administered.

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 “All I wanted to do was have a fabulous end-of-life experience on my own terms,” said Ms. Parker, who plans to die Thursday, holding her elderly mother’s hand and surrounded by her best friends, even though she is still full of life. “I would have liked to have really lived until Christmas. But I can’t take the chance of losing my window.”

 Ms. Parker’s predicament highlights what some physicians and supporters of assisted dying see as a defect in Canada’s law and it is one Ms. Parker is bent on altering, if only posthumously.

 Patients ending their lives are required to give what is known as “late stage consent,” meaning they must be lucid enough to agree to their own death immediately before a doctor or nurse practitioner administers the cocktail of life-ending drugs. If patients cannot give late-stage consent, they cannot, under the law, receive an assisted death.

 Open this photo in gallery Audrey Parker is comforted by her friend Denise Doucet as they say goodbye at the end of night. Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail

 Intended as a safeguard, the rule has had unintended consequences. Ms. Parker said it seemed to force early death on her before it really feels like her time is up.

 “They’ve literally taken my ability to die on my own terms away from me,” Ms. Parker said of lawmakers. “I have cancer in the lining of my brain. I could wake up tomorrow and I might not be myself. I just don’t know,” she said, adding: “It defies the whole point of the law. People are dying sooner than they need to.”

 To avoid that fate, some patients choose to dial back their painkillers before receiving an assisted death to ensure they are fit to consent, a decision that leads to increased suffering, said Jeff Blackmer, the vice-president of medical professionalism for the Canadian Medical Association, which represents doctors across the country.

 “That’s obviously a challenge that clinicians are concerned about,” he said. “They don’t want patients to undergo any sort of pain or suffering that could otherwise be avoided.”

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 Cutting back her cocktail of pain medication – heavy doses of Dilaudid and cannabis – was something Ms. Parker said she could not endure.

 “I’m picking to die over going through that pain again,” she said in an interview with The Globe and Mail one afternoon last week between sips of Red Bull, her walls filled with framed art she chose for her funeral, including a depiction of a nearly empty hourglass. "But if they would just let me die on my own terms … I’d figure out the right day.”

 Ms. Parker reluctantly but firmly chose Nov. 1. She is haunted by cases of terminally ill patients who were approved for an assisted death but didn’t get one after losing their capacity to consent.

 According to Health Canada’s most recent interim report on medically assisted dying, 3,714 legal assisted deaths have been carried out in Canada as of the end of last year. An analysis of why requests for the procedure are turned down in six provinces found that loss of capacity was the reason cited most frequently, followed by the patient’s death not being deemed “reasonably foreseeable,” as the law requires.

 Some of the experts who helped to inform Canada’s assisted dying law predicted that prohibiting advance requests would lead to situations such as Ms. Parker’s.

 Open this photo in gallery An ex-husband of Audrey Parker comes to say goodbye during her last party at her apartment in Halifax. Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail

 After the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Criminal Code prohibition against helping others take their own lives in 2015, a special joint committee of the House and Senate and a provincial-territorial expert advisory group were set up to make recommendations about how the new assisted-dying law should work.

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 Both groups recommended that the federal legislation allow for advance requests for assisted death in limited circumstances. The panels felt that patients such as Ms. Parker – those whose cases have already been rigorously assessed by two doctors and approved for an assisted death – should be allowed to make advance requests that set out the future terms for their death that wouldn’t be jeopardized as their mental capacity deteriorated.

 The panels also recommended that the same permission be extended to people diagnosed with diseases such as dementia, a category of patients that raises difficult ethical concerns.

 However, no advance requests of any kind were allowed under the legislation passed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in June of 2016. The legislation included a provision that independent reviewers would be asked to study whether the law should be expanded to cover three types of patients currently excluded: mature patients under the age of 18; patients whose sole reason for seeking an assisted death is mental illness and patients who want to make advance requests to have doctors hasten their deaths.

 The Council of Canadian Academies, a federally funded not-for-profit organization, is expected to publish a review of the evidence for all three situations in December. However, the reports won’t make any formal recommendations. They will only summarize the evidence.

 Those advocating for changes that would allow advance directives say it is important to distinguish between cases such as Ms. Parker’s and those that involve patients who have been diagnosed with dementia. The latter involve more complex practical and philosophical challenges, including which version of a patient should have the final say, said Hilary Young, a University of New Brunswick law professor with an expertise in health law and informed consent.

 “Is it the [predementia] person who didn’t want to be a burden and who valued her cognitive faculties very highly, or the present person who’s quite happy to read the same page of a book every day or watch television?”

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 Open this photo in gallery Chris Donovan/The Globe and Mail

 Canada is not the only country grappling with these questions. The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Colombia all allow advance requests for assisted death but some have specific rules that limit their use.

 However, the complexities wrought by dementia are not a concern in cases such as Ms. Parker’s, which some argue ought to be given more expansive consideration.

 “She’s presently suffering and has a good sense of what she’s facing," Prof. Young said. "In that context, it seems almost arbitrary to deny her the ability to make that decision.”

 The advocacy group Dying with Dignity Canada agrees. Although the organization also supports advance requests for assisted death for people with dementia, its leaders, along with Ms. Parker’s friends and family, are launching a campaign to change the federal law so that patients who have been approved for an assisted death can get one, even if they aren’t able to consent at the moment of death.

 Chief executive Shanaaz Gokool, said they want any amendment to be named Audrey’s Law, in Ms. Parker’s honour.

 Ms. Parker would like that too.

 “I’m not doing this for me. I’m already out of here. I’m doing this for you guys,” she said. “Let’s all be proactive now. If people just demand this ... we don’t need a debate. Just an amendment to the legislation.”

 Ms. Parker said she gave that message to Justice Department officials in a telephone conversation facilitated by Dying with Dignity Canada last week.

 “I really pleaded with them. I begged them to lift that late stage consent,” Ms. Parker said. “Life just worked out for me. Everything went my way. It really did. So I want my death to go my way too. I’m not going to rest easy until it’s done." ||||| HALIFAX—On her final day alive, Audrey Parker shared a stirring message online about the right to a medically assisted death, and her post is receiving support from thousands. The 57-year-old Halifax woman died at her home on Nov. 1 after a lethal injection — a choice that was made possible by a two-year-old Canadian law that allows adults to request medical assistance to die.

 Audrey Parker, who died on Thursday, said before passing away that she was forced to die early due to the current assisted dying laws in Canada. ( Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press )

 Hours before her death, Parker said in a Facebook post that she loved her life and had no regrets, but still wished she could have lived until Christmas. She said she was forced to die sooner than she wanted because of “a poorly thought out federal law.” As of Friday morning, the post had been shared more than 4,000 times, was approaching 5,000 reactions, and had almost 2,000 comments. “Peace be with you and thank you for the courage to post your thoughts,” wrote Facebook user Glynis Humber.

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 Read more: Halifax woman plans to die on Thursday, saying Ottawa is forcing early death on her Advocate dies 'peacefully' after plea for changes to Canada's assisted-death law “I will share this and I fully believe you should be able to go when you want…the late stage clause has to be removed,” Frances Power-Stone commented. Parker was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2016, which eventually spread to her bones, causing her excruciating pain, and to her brain lining, which made her worry that she would eventually lose her lucidity.

 Her final request was for the public to maintain pressure on legislators to amend the medical assistance in dying (MAID) law. “In the spirit of teaching and sharing, I’d like to leave you with some words that explain my position with MAID. You can copy and paste them into an email or text them to your MP asking for Ottawa to amend and remove late stage consent on MAID candidates in Audrey Parker’s category of Assessed and Approved MAID users,” she wrote.

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 The law stipulates that people who want to die must be able to give late-stage consent. In other words, they must reassure the doctor of their choice immediately before going through with it.

 Parker said that stipulation cut her life short. “As I near my death today, it is even more evident than ever before, that late stage consent has got to be amended and removed from MAID in Canada for my category of end users,” she said in the post. “Dying is a messy business. I can’t predict when cancer will move into my brain matter or when something else big happens to make me more unwell. I and only I can make that decision for myself.” Parker’s friends and family will host a public celebration of life at Pier 21 in Halifax on Nov. 9 at 2 p.m. Taryn Grant is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on education. Follow her on Twitter: @tarynalgrant

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Write a summary.

– Audrey Parker used Canada's medically assisted death law to legally end her life—but a provision in that law forced her to do so months earlier than she wanted to. The Guardian looks at the 57-year-old's case and the debate it has generated: Parker's stage 4 breast cancer was painful and advanced enough that she qualified as having a "grievous and irremediable medical condition," as determined by two doctors. But the law requires that one be of sound mind at the time of his or her death—and with the Toronto Star reporting the cancer had moved into Parker's brain lining, she feared that if she held off, her lucidity might erode. "I would have liked to have really lived until Christmas. But I can't take the chance of losing my window," she told the Globe and Mail. So she opted for a premature death on Nov. 1. The Globe and Mail reports the provision was put in as a "safeguard," with the Guardian noting cases of dementia patients who request death but then forget they have done so and happily live out their last days. On the flip side, the provision has also forced others to reel in their painkiller dosage at the end, resulting in increased pain. Before Parker's death, she publicly advocated to have the law changed, and the Guardian reports federal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould responded in the negative: "We're not considering changing something in the legislation." Parker discusses her experience in a lengthy obituary she wrote herself, which is filled with gratitude, features 10 pieces of advice, and ends with this: "Until we meet again, I leave you with a simple message: Be kind ... because you can." (This man had issues with the way he had to end his life.)


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Will we have the first American sitcom with openly HIV-positive star? Charlie Sheen, who yesterday publicly acknowledged his condition following a National Enquirer report, had been looking to topline another primetime comedy series. In the weeks leading to the admission, Sheen had been actively meeting with producers about developing a new half-hour starring vehicle for him. I hear among those Sheen reached out to and had meetings with were CBS TV Studios-based Eric Tannenbaum, who executive produced Sheen’s hugely successful CBS sitcom Two And A Half Men as well as executives from Sony Pictures TV. I hear nothing came out of the sit-downs, and there is no Sheen series set up at the moment.

 During the Today interview yesterday, Sheen indicated that he has major projects in the hopper, including several features, and was confident that his HIV-positive status will not have an impact on his career. He pointed to his talks at Sony TV, noting that chairman Steve Mosko was “excited about doing a show again” with him. “Thus far, there’s been no resistance,” Sheen said. It is yet to be seen whether any potential lawsuits by sexual partners from the four years he had kept his condition a secret would change that.

 Sheen had been HIV-positive during the entire run of his previous sitcom, Anger Management. According to his own account, he was diagnosed in 2011, around the time he was pitching the project. It is unclear whether the actor revealed his condition to Lionsgate TV/Debmar-Mercury, which signed on to produce the show, and FX, which picked it up to series. Sources indicate that many if not all cast and crew members on the show were not aware Sheen was HIV-positive, at least not in the beginning. According to tabloid reports, Sheen’s colleagues became suspicious when production was shut down multiple times over the star’s health problems. A leaked email from the Sony hack indicates that top Sony TV executives and likely other industry types outside the studio were aware of the actor’s condition by early 2014.

 Still, despite his 2011 public meltdown that led to his firing from 2.5 Men and heavy drug and alcohol abuse to which Sheen has confessed, most recently in the Today interview, he was able to complete 100 episodes of Anger Management in 2.5 years and is looking for a follow-up series. That would be his fourth sitcom, following Spin City, 2.5 Men and Anger Management. |||||

 Charlie Sheen on “Anger Management.” (Greg Gayne/FX)

 Apparently lost in the massive Sony e-mail hack that wreaked havoc on Hollywood last winter: this e-mail sent to several Sony Pictures Television executives in March 2014:

 “I think I will win the 90/10 bet on the over under on this … it’s hard to to be a drug addict and be HIV positive and do 40 eps a year.”

 Included was a link to a TV Week article about how Charlie Sheen was a no-show on the set of his FX series “Anger Management,” and crew members were so frustrated they were threatening to quit.

 The hacked e-mail amounts to a tasteless joke by an executive, saying that he didn’t expect Sheen to reach the 100-episode mark that would send “Anger Management” into syndication (and create a lucrative windfall for all involved). The 90/10 refers to the “Anger Management” deal that said if 10 episodes did well in the ratings, FX would pick up 90 more. As a reminder, Sheen landed the series, which aired from June 2012 to December 2014, after he imploded and was fired from CBS’s “Two and a Half Men.” The conventional wisdom at the time was that Sheen, known for erratic behavior, would be able to hold it together for 100 “Anger Management” episodes shot in just a couple years. (The show filmed exactly 100 episodes.)

 [Charlie Sheen says he’s HIV-positive, has been extorted for $10 million over diagnosis]

 The e-mail indicates that Sheen’s HIV diagnosis was no secret to some in the entertainment industry. And while Sheen’s announcement that he is HIV-positive (and his claims that he spent $10 million trying to keep it quiet) was a huge story this week, a passing reference to the news was out there for two years for anyone to see, be it publications that initially pored over the documents or anyone who dug into the Wikileaks Sony hack page. And yet the story was never revealed.

 This bit of information gives some context to what Sheen and Matt Lauer talked about when discussing his future career prospects at the end of his “Today” show interview. Sheen’s confident attitude makes sense given that his diagnosis was already known in certain circles.

 “Let me ask you about working and your career,” Lauer said. “You had a show canceled a couple years ago. You are, I imagine in need of working again … how do you think this revelation might impact your status or standing in Hollywood?”

 “As we speak, I have the chairman of Sony excited about doing a show again,” Sheen said. “I have a couple of films lined up that I could, you know, put start dates on. There’s a lot of people that we’ve even told that I’m going to do this [interview] before I came on — privately, of course — and they said, ‘Well, of course… he’s still the best guy for the job.’ ”

 “And so thus far,” Sheen concluded, “there’s been no resistance.”

 Read more:

 Charlie Sheen’s porn star ex is furious after HIV reveal: ‘He never said anything to me.’

 Jon Cryer is brutally blunt describing the worst Charlie Sheen years on ‘Two and a Half Men’

 ‘Two and a Half Men’ finally gets revenge on Charlie Sheen with insult-filled series finale |||||

– Charlie Sheen's HIV diagnosis was joked about in an email exposed, but never publicized, during last year's Sony hack, the Washington Post reports. The email from a Sony exec was joking about the fact that Sheen wasn't showing up to work on Anger Management, his FX series. "I think I will win the 90/10 bet on the over under on this … it's hard to to be a drug addict and be HIV positive and do 40 eps a year," the email reads. It's always been available on the Wikileaks Sony hack page, but hadn't been released to the larger public until now. The email was referring to a deal that stated if 10 episodes performed well, FX would order 90 more; the series, which premiered in June 2012 and ended in December 2014, was supposed to film 100 episodes in two years, enough to send it into syndication—and it did end up filming exactly that many. As the Post notes, the email illustrates the fact that some in the industry were very much aware of Sheen's diagnosis before he revealed it publicly. Deadline notes that Sheen is currently looking to do another TV series.


NASA has suspended certain activities with Russia. But the space station is exempt, and the rift highlights that, for the next few years, the US can't send astronauts into space without Russia.

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 A spacecraft carrying a NASA astronaut and two Russian astronauts docks on March 27 at the International Space Station later than scheduled after dealing with a technical issue mid-flight.

 The International Space Station, long a symbol of international cooperation in space even among former adversaries, could become the next pressure point as the US tries to raise the stakes for Moscow after Russia's takeover and annexation of Crimea.

 On Wednesday, Michael O'Brien, NASA's associate administrator for international and interagency relations issued a memo to the agency's staff suspending bilateral contacts with Russia unless a specific activity has been given an exemption.

 "This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences." wrote Mr. O'Brien. A copy of the memo was posted on the website SpaceRef.com.

 Bilateral contacts related to the operation of the space station are exempt, as are meetings held outside of Russia that involved additional countries – such as those that might be include the participation of the station's other main partners, Canada, Europe, and Japan.

 NASA's move is something of a diplomatic Post-it note; the two countries' space programs aren't engaged in many bilateral activities. Indeed, should operation of the space station come directly into play, the US and the other partners have the most to lose.

 They have the heaviest investment in the $150 billion orbiting outpost, and they cannot get into space without Russia, which has served as America's taxi service for delivering and retrieving US crew members from the space station, as well as delivering cargo to the station.

 So far, the Ukraine crisis has not interrupted US-Russia cooperation on the space station. But with the issuance of NASA's memo Wednesday, the question everyone is waiting to see answered is how Russian President Vladimir Putin responds.

 "Is he going to be a rational international leader, or is he going to going to go the way of the egomaniac autocrat?" asks Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor at the US Naval War College in Newport, R.I., and a specialist on space-security and space-policy issues.

 The motive behind including the Russians in the space station in first place stemmed partly from the country's experience with its own space station, Mir. But it also stemmed from a desire after the fall of the Soviet Union to keep Russian rocket scientists from finding work in countries whose intentions toward the US were anything but honorable.

 NASA's move comes as no surprise, says Dr. Johnson-Freese.

 Congress has banned NASA from working with China because of concerns about technology transfers and human rights. If NASA were to continue to work with Russia, that would say, "It's OK to take over someone else's sovereign territory," she says.

 "If the United States wants to avoid looking extremely hypocritical, this was going to be coming," she says.

 One US astronaut and two cosmonauts arrived at the station March 27 after a two-day trip aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. On April 9, Russia is slated to launch a Progress resupply craft to the station.

 Even so, Wednesday's memo is expected to intensify the debate in Congress over restoring NASA's ability to launch astronauts from US soil. With the end of the US space shuttle program in 2010, Russia became the only country in the partnership able to transport crew members.

 "We've always known that dependence carries risks," Johnson-Freese says. But the risk "has been exponentially magnified" by recent events.

 NASA has contracted with commercial providers such as Space Exploration Technologies, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Boeing to develop launch systems that can carry humans. The agency will eventually select one for actual transportation contracts.

 But some lawmakers have been lukewarm about the commercial approach, and the agency has been directed to continue developing a multipurpose launch system for low-Earth orbit and deep-space exploration.

 The first flight for "commercial crew" initially was envisioned for 2015, but funding hasn't kept pace. Now the first flights aren't anticipated until 2017. Meanwhile, each seat on a Soyuz runs about $71 million, up from $51 million when the US first began buying seats after the shuttle program ended, according to an analysis by the National Space Society, which supports commercial development of space.

 The Obama administration's fiscal 2015 budget request seeks $848 million to keep the commercial-crew program on track for 2017. And advocates would like to see Congress restore $171 million withheld from the program during the current fiscal year. ||||| MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) - Washington's decision to freeze cooperation between the NASA space agency and its Russian counterpart on a slew of joint projects will hurt global space partnership but won't be the end of the Russian space program, Director of the Space Policy Institute Ivan Moiseyev told RIA Novosti Thursday.

 NASA issued a statement saying it put most of its joint missions with Russia on hold indefinitely. The only exception is the "operational International Space Station activities," the agency's associate administrator Michael O'Brien said in a memo.

 "The statement was way too harsh," Ivan Moiseyev told RIA Novosti. He warned NASA that its move would have a "rather significant" impact on space exploration projects globally.

 "Modern space science is a global phenomenon that benefits all countries," Moiseyev noted. "It means that many large-scale projects require an international effort. A freeze on cooperation will spur a serious backlash against the international space program."

 The space pundit added that, despite being something that Russia would never want for space science, this freeze was unlikely to have any catastrophic repercussions for its industry. Russia will simply have to adjust its projects to the new reality, he explained.

 Russia's senior space official said earlier in an interview with RIA Novosti that Russia didn't depend much on the United States, as far as space industry goes.

 This comes as the United States, European Union and their allies continue to ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Russia following its re-unification with the Russian-majority Crimea peninsula, which was taken over by Ukraine after the Soviet fall.

 Measures include sanctions against Russian and Crimean officials and businesses, who had their foreign assets seized.

 In a recent development, NATO member states suspended cooperation with Moscow allegedly until Russia changed its stand on the Ukrainian crisis, prompting the Russian Foreign Office to accuse the allies of trying to manhandle the country into accepting their viewpoint. ||||| NASA Statement regarding suspension of some NASA activities with Russian Government representatives

 Press Release From: NASA HQ

 Posted: Wednesday, April 2, 2014

 Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation. NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station. NASA is laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space. This has been a top priority of the Obama Administration's for the past five years, and had our plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches - and the jobs they support - back to the United States next year. With the reduced level of funding approved by Congress, we're now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017. The choice here is between fully funding the plan to bring space launches back to America or continuing to send millions of dollars to the Russians. It's that simple. The Obama Administration chooses to invest in America - and we are hopeful that Congress will do the same.

 // end //

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 Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. ||||| NASA Internal Memo: Suspension of NASA contact with Russian entities

 Status Report From: NASA HQ

 Posted: Wednesday, April 2, 2014

 From: O'Brien, Michael F (HQ-TA000)

 Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2014 9:33 AM

 To: [Deleted]

 Cc: [Deleted]

 Subject: Suspension of NASA contact with Russian entities

 Dear Colleagues,

 Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, until further notice, the U.S. Government has determined that all NASA contacts with Russian Government representatives are suspended, unless the activity has been specifically excepted. This suspension includes NASA travel to Russia and visits by Russian Government representatives to NASA facilities, bilateral meetings, email, and teleconferences or videoconferences. At the present time, only operational International Space Station activities have been excepted. In addition, multilateral meetings held outside of Russia that may include Russian participation are not precluded under the present guidance. If desired, our office will assist in communication with Russian entities regarding this suspension of activities. Specific questions regarding the implementation of this guidance can be directed to Ms. Meredith McKay, 202.358.1240 or meredith.mckay@nasa.gov, in our office.

 We remain in close contact with the Department of State and other U.S. Government departments and agencies. If the situation changes, further guidance will be disseminated.

 Obie

 Michael F. O'Brien

 Associate Administrator for International and Interagency Relations

 National Aeronautics and Space Administration

 Statement regarding suspension of some NASA activities with Russian Government representatives, issued 7:44 pm EDT

 "Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, NASA is suspending the majority of its ongoing engagements with the Russian Federation. NASA and Roscosmos will, however, continue to work together to maintain safe and continuous operation of the International Space Station. NASA is laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil, and end our reliance on Russia to get into space. This has been a top priority of the Obama Administration's for the past five years, and had our plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches - and the jobs they support - back to the United States next year. With the reduced level of funding approved by Congress, we're now looking at launching from U.S. soil in 2017. The choice here is between fully funding the plan to bring space launches back to America or continuing to send millions of dollars to the Russians. It's that simple. The Obama Administration chooses to invest in America - and we are hopeful that Congress will do the same."

 // end //

 More status reports and news releases or top stories.

 Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

 Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. |||||

Write a summary.

– NASA is cutting off much of its contact and cooperation with Russia—except when it comes to the International Space Station, which NASA relies on Russia to reach. "Given Russia's ongoing violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," all contact with Russian representatives are suspended, "unless the activity has been specifically excepted," an administrator told employees in a memo leaked to SpaceRef. Those excepted activities include any bilateral contacts regarding space station operations, and multilateral meetings including other space station partner nations. NASA is in a tough position. It relies on Russia's Soyuz capsules, but the US has banned China from the ISS for human rights violations, the Christian Science Monitor explains. "If the United States wants to avoid looking extremely hypocritical, this was going to be coming," says one space policy expert. NASA soon issued a statement confirming the memo and saying that it was "laser focused on a plan to return human spaceflight launches to American soil." Russia isn't pleased, if this editorial from the state-run RIA Novosti is any indication. "The statement was way too harsh," the director of Russia's Space Policy Institute said.


News article:

- A man wanted in connection to two deadly shootings in Montgomery County on Friday in addition to the shooting death of his estranged wife outside a Prince George's County high school on Thursday night was arrested. Officers surrounded a silver Hyundai Elantra in the parking lot of an Aspen Hill Kohl's store, and the suspect, 62-year-old Eulalio Tordil was inside.

 FOX 5's Alexandra Limon was live on the air when police began rushing across the street from the parking lot of a Giant food store, where one of two shootings took place on Friday morning. Limon's crew was quickly moved away, but moments later, things settled-- and Tordil was in custody. (WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE)

 Shortly thereafter, Montgomery County Police confirmed that a suspect was indeed in custody, and it was Tordil. He was arrested in the parking lot of the same shopping center where the D.C. Beltway sniper attacks began. The first shot was fired to the Michaels craft store, which is still there, on October 2, 2002. Investigators said Tordil ate at the same restaurant, a Boston Market, where John Allen Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo ate.

 Earlier Friday, two people were killed in two separate shootings in Montgomery County. The first happened outside Montgomery Mall, and the second outside the Aspen Hill Giant grocery store.

 MONTGOMERY MALL SHOOTING

 On Friday morning at around 11:13 am, an off-duty officer called dispatch and other officers that shots were fired during a confrontation outside of Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, and two men and a woman were wounded. One of the men died, and the second man is in critical condition at Suburban Hospital. The female victim is also at the hospital in stable condition with non-life threatening injuries.

 Police said they believed two of the people who were shot at that scene were hit when they came to the aid of the first victim.

 Westfield Montgomery released the following statement regarding the shootings after Tordil was arrested:

 "There was a shooting this morning in the parking lot of Westfield Montgomery and the suspect immediately fled the scene. We worked closely with Montgomery County PD on site and the center remained open serving as shelter for those who wished to remain inside. We are grateful to local law enforcement for their efforts to secure the site and insure the safety of the community.

 All of us in this community are shocked and saddened by these events. We send our heartfelt condolences to the victims of this tragedy and their families.

 We encourage you to follow official updates on Montgomery County Police Department."

 ASPEN HILL SHOOTING

 At around 11:50 p.m., a second shooting was reported outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill located on Connecticut Avenue. Montgomery County police confirmed that one woman was shot in her car, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

 SUSPECT ARRESTED

 Before Tordil's arrest, Montgomery County police confirmed they were looking into the possibility that Friday's shootings were connected to another deadly shooting that took place on Thursday afternoon outside a High Point High School in Beltsville, Md. Detectives say Tordil shot and killed his estranged wife outside the school in what investigators called a domestic-related shooting. Another man was also shot as he tried to intervene and help the victim.

 On Thursday night, police issued an alert for Tordil, who was said to be driving a silver 2015 Hyundai Elantra with Pennsylvania license plate JZA0123. Tordil is an employee of the Federal Protection Service, and police warned that he may have been wearing body armor and may be heavily armed.

 Also before the arrest, sources told FOX 5's Marina Marraco that Friday's shootings were connected to Thursday night's shooting, but Montgomery County Police Captain Paul Starks said he could not confirm a connection, and they were continuing to look into the possibility of a connection.

 In a press conference late Friday afternoon with officials from both counties, authorities said Tordil was the alleged gunman in all three shootings. Police said officers responding to the Giant parking lot shooting located the vehicle that matched the description parked in the Northgate Shopping Center.

 Montgomery County Police Chief Tom Manger said plainclothes officers had Tordil under surveillance in the area and they were extremely careful to make sure they kept the public safe. Authorities said he had earlier threatened to "commit suicide by cop."

 "We had him under surveillance and he was walking from store to store and at no point was it safe to take him into custody until we did," said Manger.

 After he came out of the Dunkin' Donuts, police cornered Tordil at his car.

 "They came in from all directions," said one witness. "They boxed him in, they rammed the car from the front and the back, pulled guns on him and told him to get out of the vehicle."

 Without a single gunshot from both police and the suspect, Tordil exited his car and surrendered peacefully.

 CHARGES

 On Friday night, Prince George's County police officially charged Tordil with first-degree murder and related charges for the fatal shooting of his wife. He was also charged with assault for shooting a bystander who attempted to intervene in the confrontation between the couple.

 Charges are pending against Tordil in connection to the shootings in Montgomery County. He was in custody Friday night at Montgomery County police headquarters being interviewed. He will be arraigned in District Court Monday afternoon.

 SCHOOLS ON ALERT

 A shelter-in-place order was issued for all Montgomery County schools out of what Starks called an abundance of caution, but just before 2:30 pm, that order was lifted at all but five schools. Following Tordil's arrest, all shelter-in-place orders were lifted.

 Stay with FOX 5 and fox5dc.com for updates. ||||| A suspected gunman is in custody after two people were killed in separate shootings at a mall and grocery store in Montgomery County, Maryland, today, and police say the shootings may be linked to a deadly domestic shooting in the area yesterday.

 The suspect, Eulalio Tordil, 62, was taken into custody today in the Aspen Hill, Maryland, area, police said. No one was injured during the arrest.

 Montgomery County police said they have reason to believe today's two deadly shootings -- at the Westfield Montgomery Mall and a Giant grocery store nearby -- were related to a fatal shooting at a high school in the area yesterday, adding "that will obviously [need to be] further vetted."

 The suspect was apprehended after he was seen eating at a Boston Market, police said.

 Alex Brandon/AP Photo

 Three people were shot at the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda earlier today. One of the victims has died; another is in critical condition and the third suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

 A woman was also killed today in a shooting at a Giant grocery store in the Aspen Hill area, about 8 miles away from the mall.

 ABC NEWS

 The Prince George's County Police Department said earlier today it was "looking into the possibility" that Tordil, accused of shooting and killing his estranged wife Thursday in the parking lot of High Point High School in Beltsville in Prince George's County, was also the shooter in Montgomery County this morning. Montgomery County police also said earlier they were "investigating a possible link" between Tordil and the two shootings today.

 We're looking into the possibility Eulalio Tordil, High Point HS gunman, is also the shooter in Montgomery Co. pic.twitter.com/4rQW9IJ54f — PGPDNEWS (@PGPDNews) May 6, 2016

 Prince George's County police said Tordil, a Federal Protective Service employee, followed his estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, to the high school Thursday afternoon when she went to pick up her children. Police said Tordil fatally shot his estranged wife and shot and injured a good Samaritan who came to her aid.

 @lovely__nat/Instagram

 Tordil's wife has alleged that Tordil subjected their family to abuse, according to a protective order issued by a Maryland judge against Tordil.

 The order was issued on March 17, 2016, and was to remain in place for one year. The judge specifically ordered Tordil to stay away from High Point High School, where Gladys Tordil was murdered.

 According to the document, Gladys Tordil alleged that Tordil exposed minor children to “pornographic materials,” touched at least one of them inappropriately and subjected them to “intense-military-like discipline – pushups, detention in dark closet.”

 Gladys Tordil said in 2010 that her husband “slapped me so hard during our altercation, my glasses broke on my face," the document states.

 On Tordil's wanted poster from Thursday, authorities noted, “The suspect has made threats to commit suicide by cop.”

 FPS said Tordil was placed on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him. His duty weapon, badge and credentials were removed. He was subsequently placed on administrative leave, FPS said.

 ABC News' Jack Date and Geneva Sands contributed to this report. ||||| Montgomery County, Md. Police officers investigate after a shooting outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Police say three people were hurt in the shooting. (AP... (Associated Press)

 Montgomery County, Md. Police officers investigate after a shooting outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Police say three people were hurt in the shooting. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) (Associated Press)

 BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — A woman was killed and three people were wounded in two shootings within an hour Friday at a mall and a shopping center in the Washington suburbs, police said.

 Officers responding to a report of a shooting in the parking lot of Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda on Friday morning found three people shot, Montgomery County Police Assistant Chief Darryl McSwain said. One person was shot and two others may have been shot coming to that person's aid, he said. There's no reason to believe the victims knew the shooter, he said.

 About a half an hour later, police were called to a shooting at a Giant Food store in Aspen Hill, about 5 miles away. Police later tweeted that a woman died after that shooting. It's not clear if the shootings are connected.

 No one is in custody, McSwain said, but police are looking at a person of interest.

 The upscale mall is located in Bethesda, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Washington.

 Police in neighboring Prince George's County are looking into the possibility that the shootings could be connect to a fatal shooting at a high school on Wednesday, spokeswoman Julie Parker said. The suspect in that shooting was still on the loose.

 All schools in Montgomery County are sheltering in place at the request of police, county schools officials said in a statement. Schools were given a "shelter-in-place" order around 1 p.m., schools spokeswoman Gboyinde Onijala said. That means classroom activities will continue but all students staff and visitors are being brought inside and doors are locked. ||||| Montgomery County Assistant Russ Hamill described the attempted carjackings at Md. shopping centers on May 6, and detailed how two of the victims "selflessly and heroically" saved a woman. She and one man were injured, while the other died. Suspect Eulalio Tordil is in custody. (WUSA9)

 Montgomery County Assistant Russ Hamill described the attempted carjackings at Md. shopping centers on May 6, and detailed how two of the victims "selflessly and heroically" saved a woman. She and one man were injured, while the other died. Suspect Eulalio Tordil is in custody. (WUSA9)

 A frantic 22 hours of mayhem at a school, a mall and a grocery store jolted two counties as it left three dead and three wounded before a suspect was captured Friday afternoon in a Maryland parking lot near the scene of the final killing.

 The arrest of Eulalio “Leo” Tordil, a 62-year-old federal law enforcement officer, followed a manhunt that forced Montgomery County schools, government buildings and retail establishments to lock down. Just before 3 p.m., police cruisers rammed Tordil’s silver Hyundai Elantra as it sat parked outside a strip mall. Officers drew their guns and shouted for him to surrender — just one day after he had allegedly gunned down his wife within view of her daughter.

 Although authorities said he had planned to die in a “suicide by cop,” Tordil soon emerged from the car with his hands up.

 “He gave up peacefully,” said Theresa Doyle, 55, who witnessed the arrest from her car near a Dunkin’ Donuts. “I am still shaking. This could have been so much worse.”

 The sporadic shootings sparked a deep sense of foreboding that echoed what the same neighborhood suffered through during the Beltway sniper rampage that took 10 lives in 2002.

 1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × The scenes of two shootings in Montgomery County, Md. View Photos One man was slain at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, and a woman was killed outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill. The suspect, Eulalio Tordil, is in custody. Caption One man was slain at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda and a woman was killed outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill. The suspect, Eulalio Tordil, is in custody. May 6, 2016 Police take Eulalio Tordil, 62, a suspect in the Westfield Montgomery Mall shooting and two other fatal shootings in the D.C. area, into custody in Bethesda, Md. Alex Brandon/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 “It was an irony that was not lost on me,” Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.

 The snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad, had even eaten lunch at the same Boston Market where a witness was told by employees that Tordil quietly ate his lunch — a salad and a glass of water — near a window facing his car.

 Prince George’s County officials charged Tordil with first-degree murder and related charges in his wife’s killing and other counts in the shooting at the school. Other than his wife, none of the victims has yet been publicly identified. In a statement late Friday, Montgomery police said Tordil was “currently being interviewed by detectives,” and they indicated that he had not been charged in that jurisdiction.

 The killing began Thursday afternoon, investigators say, when Tordil approached his estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, as she waited in a parking lot at High Point High School in Beltsville to pick up her two daughters.

 When a man tried to intervene, authorities said, Tordil shot him in the shoulder. They say Tordil then pointed his weapon at his wife’s SUV, firing repeatedly until she died.

 At that moment, her 16-year-old daughter was walking out of a nearby band room. Hearing the shots, another student pulled her back inside and ran to alert others.

 “That’s when the whole school panicked,” said 17-year-old Chris Mejia, High Point’s senior class president.

 In March, at the behest of his wife, a civil court issued a protective order against Tordil for alleged abuse, according to court documents. In the filing, she claimed that her husband, a black belt in the martial-art form of aikido, subjected her children to “intense-military-like discipline” and that he struck her in 2010.

 “He threatened to harm me,” she said, “if I leave him.”

 As a result of the order, his employer, the Federal Protective Service, put him on administrative duties and stripped him of his gun and badge. Authorities say they also confiscated a stockpile of his personal weapons. His wife indicated in the protective order that he owned .40-caliber and .45-caliber handguns, an M4 military carbine, a revolver and a “hunting gun.”

 Under “favorite quotes” on Tordil’s Facebook page, it lists a single misspelled line: “You can ran, but you can’t hide.”

 Authorities tried to begin tracking Tordil immediately after the shooting at High Point.

 They had little to work with and were contending with a suspect whose career in law enforcement made him even harder to pursue, said Prince George’s County Police Chief Henry P. Stawinski III.

 Tordil had turned off his phone 20 minutes before the first shooting and never turned it back on. Video of the shooting was grainy and showed only a silver sedan, but police quickly learned that he had leased the Elantra and knew the Pennsylvania license plate number.

 That provided them the only firm nugget of information to track their suspect.

 Police didn’t release details about the car to the public Thursday night, fearing Tordil might catch on and abandon it, Stawinski said. But they did inform other law enforcement officers.

 “He is a police officer, and he would be doing countersurveillance on us and watching the media,” the chief said. “If he knew we knew that was his car, he would get rid of the car.”

 More than 100 undercover officers, homicide detectives and special patrol teams from Prince George’s alone fanned throughout the region. The car’s license tag was spotted around midnight, but Tordil eluded authorities throughout the night.

 The violence on Friday began about 11:15 a.m., police said, when Tordil fatally shot one man and wounded another man and a woman in the parking lot of Westfield Montgomery Mall. Police said they think that Tordil shot two of the three as they rushed to help the first victim. As of late Friday night, they said the wounded man was in critical condition and the woman in stable condition with non-life-threatining injuries.

 Jose Mauricio Gomez, 54, was eating lunch in his pickup when he heard six to eight shots. When a police officer pulled up next to him, Gomez realized that the crime scene was nearby.

 Neither man spotted the shooter, but they did see one victim, a woman with a shoulder wound.

 The officer asked the woman, who appeared to be in her 30s, whether she could stand.

 “That’s when blood shot out of the hole in her shoulder and he sat her back down,” Gomez said.

 The only thing she talked about, he recalled, was how upset her husband was going to be.

 While at that scene, officers received a 911 call from the Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill, nine miles away, where a woman had been shot to death in her car.

 Soon after, a plainclothes officer spotted Tordil’s car parked across the street from the grocery store, according to McCarthy. Investigators soon realized Tordil was still nearby after showing wanted fliers at area businesses.

 Tordil, McCarthy said, first got a cup of coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts, then went to Michaels craft store to “browse around” before heading to Boston Market, where he quietly ate lunch near a window.

 As many as 100 officers kept up surveillance but resisted closing in to avoid a bloody firefight in a bustling shopping area.

 “We needed to make sure the public was safe when we took him into custody,” said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger. “Our fear was he was armed, since he already shot four people today.”

 When Tordil returned to his car, officers swarmed.

 He was soon led away in handcuffs, with either rain or sweat soaked through his jeans and light-brown polo.

 “The judgments made today by police saved a lot of lives,” McCarthy said. “This went down exactly as planned.”

 Authorities have no evidence that Tordil knew the people he has been accused of attacking on Friday, leaving investigators to sort through his motivation.

 It also remains unclear what led him to allegedly kill his wife, a mother of two teen girls who supported her children and family members in the Philippines.

 Gladys Tordil, who taught chemistry at Parkdale High, should have been honored this week — both for National Teacher Appreciation Week and Mother’s Day — and not killed in front of her daughter, said Mejia, the student body president.

 “My niece had her as a teacher last year. She said she was a great person,” he said. “She was always happy, always singing, always dancing.”

 On the door of her classroom, more than 100 hand-scrawled sticky notes captured what she had meant to those left behind, a mosaic of memories on squares of pink, blue, green and yellow.

 Read one: “To the reason I’m pursuing Chemistry.” Another: “Thank you Mrs. Tordil! Rest in Peace!” And another: “We will forever love you.”

 Ann E. Marimow, Donna St. George, Peter Hermann, Arelis R. Hernández, Justin Wm. Moyer, Martin Weil, Michael E. Ruane, Keith L. Alexander, Dan Morse, Victoria St. Martin, Moriah Balingit, Dana Hedgpeth and Hamil R. Harris contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) A federal law enforcement officer sought in the fatal shootings of his estranged wife at a school, a man at a mall parking lot and a woman outside a grocery store has been arrested, police in Maryland said Friday.

 Eulalio Tordil, 62, was taken into custody without incident after police spotted him inside a business close to the grocery store, Montgomery County police Chief J. Thomas Manger said.

 Police waited about an hour to make the arrest, fearing Tordil was armed, and closed in when he got into his vehicle, Manger said. A weapon was found in the vehicle, he said.

 Tordil is an employee of the Federal Protective Service , which protects federal facilities and is part of Homeland Security.

 He was placed on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him, the FPS said.

 Estranged wife obtained protective order

 In March 2016, a Prince George's County district judge ordered that Tordil have no contact with his estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, and two minors thought to be their children.

 According to the court documents, Tordil had access to at least three revolvers, which the court ordered him to carry only during work. He had to leave them at his workplace. The FPS said it went one step further after the protective order, removing Tordil's duty weapon, badge and credentials.

 Gladys Tordil alleged that Eulalio "has been subjecting them to intense military-like discipline -- push ups, detention in dark closet," according to the order. She said, "He threatened to harm me if I leave him," the documents say.

 Prince George's County police charged Eulalio Tordil on Friday with first-degree murder in the shooting of his wife, the department said in a news release posted on its website. He was charged with assault for allegedly shooting a man who tried to intervene.

 Montgomery County police have not announced any charges.

 Shootings UPDATE: Suspect IN CUSTODY in Aspen Hill area: Eulalio Tordil, 62. Press Conference to be held. Time: TBD pic.twitter.com/cHQJRPa9uP — Montgomery Co Police (@mcpnews) May 6, 2016

 First shooting at high school

 All the shootings happened in parking lots. Besides those killed, three people were wounded. Police said they don't know whether Tordil had a relationship with any of the other people who were shot other than Gladys Tordil.

 Law enforcement authorities had been looking for Tordil since Thursday, when Gladys Tordil, 44, was killed outside High Point High School in Beltsville in adjacent Prince George's County, police said. The school was one of the places Tordil was ordered to stay away from in the court order.

 It appeared Tordil followed her to the school property as she came to pick up her children and confronted her as she sat in her car, police said.

 A passerby was shot as he tried to intervene and suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to a police report. After the wife was shot multiple times, the gunman left the scene, police said.

 CNN Map

 Around 11 a.m. Friday morning, one man was fatally shot outside Westfield Montgomery mall in Bethesda, according to police. A man and woman were wounded, police said. The man is in critical condition and the woman in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

 While officers were investigating that shooting, they received a call at 11:50 a.m. about a shooting in the Giant supermarket parking lot in Aspen Hill, Manger said. Officers found a woman fatally shot inside her vehicle.

 Officers searching for the suspect found his vehicle in a nearby shopping center parking lot, then spotted him inside businesses, he said.

 Manger said police decided not to confront Tordil right away because they thought he was armed. The suspect spent about an hour in various businesses and ate lunch at a Boston Market, the chief said.

 "He was walking from store to store and at no point was it safe for us to take him into custody until we did," Manger said. "We needed to make sure the public was safe when we took him into custody."

 When the suspect got in his car, police blocked the vehicle and made the arrest, the official said.

 Tordil is expected in court at 1 p.m. Monday in Rockville District Court, police said.

 Remembering the D.C. snipers

 The area where Tordil was arrested had significance for residents of the District of Columbia.

 The D.C.-area snipers , who killed 10 people in 2002, passed through the area, Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said.

 "They ate in the same restaurant where we were having the surveillance today, which was an irony that was not lost on me," he said.

 During three weeks in October 2002 , John Allen Muhammad and accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo, then 17, killed 10 people and wounded three, while taunting police with written messages and phoned-in threats and demands.

 Muhammed was executed in 2009. Malvo is serving a life sentence.

 "Today's incident was very reminiscent of fear that permeated throughout our communities during the 2002 sniper shootings," Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said in a statement on the county government website. "It was also another harsh reality of the terror that gun violence can create." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Two people are dead following shootings at a shopping mall and grocery store Friday in Maryland, and police have a possible suspect in custody. The first shooting took place around 11am outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, with two men and one woman hit, Fox 5 DC reports. Two of the victims were reportedly shot when attempting to help the first victim, and all three were hospitalized. According to ABC News, one of the men has died and another victim is in critical condition. Police say there is no indication the shooter knew the victims, the AP reports. The second shooting took place at a grocery store about eight miles from the mall and left a woman dead, the Washington Post reports. It's unclear if the two shootings are related. Police say Eulalio Tordil, wanted on suspicion of shooting and killing his estranged wife outside a Maryland high school on Thursday, may be responsible for one or both of Friday's shootings. He was arrested Friday afternoon, according to NBC News. Tordil allegedly followed his wife to the school, where she was picking up her children, and shot her. Police say he also shot and injured a person attempting to help his wife. CNN reports the 62-year-old Tordil is a law enforcement officer with the Federal Protective Service who was put on administrative leave in March after a protective order was issued against him.


Summarize this article:

1,000 bodies may have been asylum patients; more might be revealed on campus.

 This area near the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry was slated to become a parking garage, but the plans were shelved after 1,000 bodies were found in a graveyard, presumed to have been patients who died at the Mississippi State Insane Asylum almost a century ago. (Photo: Rick Guy, The Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger) Story Highlights University of Mississippi Medical Center had planned to build a parking garage east of the dental school

 Testing in the area revealed 1,000 bodies, believed to have been patients at the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum a century ago

 Future expansion plans might be halted because other bodies may lie beneath the earth %u2014 former slaves, TB victims and possibly even Civil War dead

 JACKSON, Miss. — Future progress for the state's longtime medical school has collided with the ghosts of Mississippi's past — the discovery of a 1,000 bodies buried on its campus and the likelihood of more.

 Officials of the fast-growing University of Mississippi Medical Center had planned to build a parking garage east of the dental school, where a grove of trees now sits.

 But testing in the area revealed 1,000 bodies, believed to have been patients at the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum a century ago.

 "None have names," said Dr. James Keeton, dean of the medical school.

 Paying for reburials elsewhere would cost about $3,000 a piece, or $3 million total, he said. "We can't afford that."

 New plans include building the parking garage next to the dental school, he said.

 Others plans may have to change, too. Medical center officials had hoped to use the property west of the dental school for future expansion, but Keeton said they might have to rethink that approach, because other bodies may lie beneath the earth — former slaves, TB victims and possibly even Civil War dead.

 The UMMC ground on which Keeton and Gov. Phil Bryant recently stood to announce construction of the $11 million American Cancer Society Hope Lodge is believed to contain yet more bodies.

 For that reason, UMMC officials said both the lodge and a new Children's Justice Center would likely have to be relocated on the 164-acre campus, where both space and parking seem to be growing scarce.

 The State Lunatic Asylum opened on the site in 1855, housing 150 patients.

 Eight years later, the Union's 46th Indiana Infantry Regiment arrived at the asylum. One soldier wrote that the patients "were terribly excited and were seen at the windows shouting to the soldiers."

 James Roncki of Tennessee Valley Archaeological Research measures the length of a coffin on University of Mississippi Medical Center property in 2012. (Photo: The Jackson, Miss., Clarion-Ledger)

 Readying for the siege of Jackson, the soldiers set up camp, built fortifications and grew vegetables to sustain themselves, said Jim Woodrick, director of the Historic Preservation Division of the state Department of Archives and History.

 During the ensuing battle, Confederate soldiers fired back and hit the asylum, injuring at least one patient, he said.

 By the time the Union Army left, one soldier penned that Jackson is a "ruined town," he said.

 After the Civil War ended, the mental facility expanded to house 300 patients, and the area became known as "Asylum Hill," a neighborhood that included houses, a school and a church for former slaves, Cade Chapel M.B. Church.

 The area eventually saw construction of a fertilizer factory, a Baptist orphanage and a sanatorium for those suffering from tuberculosis.

 The hill had several cemeteries: one for asylum patients, one for M.B. church members and one for paupers. Some have suggested there may be Civil War graves there, too.

 In 1935, Mississippi moved the asylum to its present location at Whitfield.

 Two decades later, construction started on the University Medical Center, and officials dubbed the area "Education Hill."

 It didn't stick.

 Dr. Luke Lampton, chairman of the state Board of Health, said his father, who taught at UMMC for four decades, told him every time the institution broke ground, they found more caskets.

 "There are probably thousands more bodies that we've never seen," said Lampton, who has researched and written about the days of the asylum.

 By 1926, the patient population had swelled to 2,000, and the patients grew their own crops, Lampton said.

 In 1990, The Clarion-Ledger reported about 20 tombstones had been discarded in a gully behind UMC.

 After the article appeared, archives officials warned UMC that hundreds of bodies might be buried there, saying, "This site is a potential Mississippi Landmark and may be adversely affected by any development on it."

 A UMMC official responded: "Should any development occur in the future in that area, I know the information you sent will be helpful."

 A few years later, workers found 44 unmarked graves while putting in a steam line for a new laundry.

 During 2012 construction on the crossing of East University Drive and University Drive on campus, workers discovered the first of 66 pine coffins that held bodies, leading UMMC to contact state archives and Mississippi State University.

 Medical center officials announced plans to rebury those in a small cemetery there.

 But that option isn't possible with the discovery of 1,000 bodies, Keeton said.

 Biological anthropologist Nicholas Herrmann, an associate professor at MSU, said through recent testing, they've been able to get a good idea of the location of the asylum graves.

 What is less certain, he said, is where other cemeteries might have been.

 In most cases, anthropologists have been able to determine gender and approximate age.

 Mable Daniels is hoping such information might help to confirm her great-grandmother, Epsie Seals, was indeed buried there. "It would be closer than what we know right now," said Daniels, whose great-grandmother died at the asylum on Valentine's Day in 1916 after "14 days of paralysis."

 Woodrick said the crescent-shaped earthworks on the UMMC campus are part of the only two military fortifications left from the 1863 siege The other is in Battlefield Park, marked by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, he said. "They identified them as Confederate trenches. They are actually Union trenches. They also put cannons there that are actually Spanish-American War guns, and they're pointed the wrong way. Other than that, they got everything right."

 If a bulldozer ever tries to disturb the earthworks on old Asylum Hill, Woodrick vows to do all he can to halt it. "I'll go down," he said, "and lay in the road."

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1lPDlnz ||||| CLOSE Up to 7,000 bodies are buried on 20 acres of the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus. They are former patients of state's mental institution, built in 1855. UMMC is exploring the possibility of placing the remains in a memorial.

 In this 2013 UMMC photo, Forrest Follet from the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, Mississippi State University, removes the soil from the lids of the dozens of unmarked graves uncovered during construction on the UMMC campus. (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

 Experts estimate up to 7,000 bodies are buried on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus.

 They are former patients of the state’s first mental institution, called the Insane Asylum, built in 1855, and underground radar shows their coffins stretch across 20 acres of the UMMC campus, where officials have wanted to build.

 But those officials have faced a steep cost — $3,000 to exhume and rebury each body, as much as $21 million total.

 Now UMMC is studying the cheaper alternative of handling those exhumations in-house, at a cost of $400,000 a year for at least eight years. It also would create a memorial that would preserve the remains with a visitors’ center and a lab that could be used to study the remains as well as the remnants of clothing and coffins.

 Dr. Ralph Didlake, who oversees UMMC’s Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, believes the lab would be the first of its kind in the nation — giving researchers insight into life in the asylum in the 1800s and early 1900s.

 “It would be a unique resource for Mississippi,” said Molly Zuckerman, associate professor in Mississippi State University’s Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures. “It would make Mississippi a national center on historical records relating to health in the pre-modern period, particularly those being institutionalized.”

 ALSO READ: 195 jobs, 85 positions cut at University of Mississippi Medical Center

 Didlake, Zuckerman and others have formed the Asylum Hill Research Consortium, made up of anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and even an expert in dating the wood of the coffins.

 It was the consortium that developed the memorial/visitors' center/lab plans.

 “We have inherited these patients,” Didlake said. “We want to show them care and respectful management.”

 Asylum's history

 Mississippi’s first mental institution became a reality when reformer Dorothea Dix of Boston rallied support among Mississippi lawmakers to fund construction of the $175,000 asylum, completed in 1855.

 The Mississippi Lunatic Asylum included a main building and several wings. (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

 Before the asylum, those suffering from mental illness were chained in jails and even attics, said Dr. Luke Lampton, chairman of the state Board of Health.

 While the asylum provided a better place for patients, life remained harsh. Of the 1,376 patients admitted between 1855 and 1877, more than one in five died.

 After the Civil War ended, the facility expanded to house 300 patients, and the area became known as “Asylum Hill,” a neighborhood that included houses, a school and Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, a church for former slaves.

 At its height, about 6,000 patients stayed at the asylum, and the facility provided many jobs to the area, which saw construction of a fertilizer factory, a Baptist orphanage and a sanatorium for those suffering from tuberculosis.

 In 1935, Mississippi moved the asylum to the present location of the State Hospital at Whitfield.

 Two decades later, construction began on the same hill for UMMC.

 In 2013, UMMC officials discovered 66 coffins while constructing a road on the 164-acre campus.

 When the university began work in 2014 on a parking garage east of the dental school, underground radar revealed 1,000 coffins. More radar work revealed at least 2,000 coffins total.

 Didlake said current estimates put the number as high as 7,000.

 The consortium is hoping grants can make it possible for other researchers to join the study, he said.

 SEE ALSO: Mississippi rejects entrepreneurial program for inmates

 Personal connection

 Karen Clark of Clinton would like to see a grant given to collect DNA from all the patients. “It would make these people identifiable if family members came forth,” she said.

 Karen Clark of Clinton says her great-great-great grandfather, Isham Earnest, is believed to have died at the Mississippi's mental institution between 1857 and 1859. (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

 She is willing to donate her own DNA to see if it matches her great-great-great grandfather, Isham Earnest. The War of 1812 veteran moved to Neshoba County in 1842, was ruled “insane” in the 1850s and is believed to have died at the asylum between 1857 and 1859.

 “Hundreds, if not thousands, of descendants are here today because of Isham Earnest,” she said. “Many are teachers, nurses, educators and ministers.”

 When she recently went through old asylum records and read about patients there, she felt overcome with emotion, she said. “I thought, ‘This person could be saved if modern medicine were there.’”

 This is a registry of admissions from the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum. (Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

 Her sympathy runs high for those in the asylum “because I’ve had mental issues in the distant past,” she said. “No one took me and dumped me.”

 Some research has already begun. Mississippi State University’s Cobb Institute of Archaeology has been examining the remains of the 66 exhumed patients, and three master’s students have completed theses on them.

 Zuckerman said one master's student used genetic sequencing to reconstruct oral bacteria from skeletons, shedding light on health conditions at the time the individuals were alive. A second student studied missing lines of tooth enamel, pointing to nutritional deprivation and other severe stress. A third student found evidence in asylum records and in skeletons of pellagra, a disease caused by Vitamin B deficiency, which was extremely common in the South during the early 20th century.

 Zuckerman said records reflect up to 35,000 patients stayed at the asylum between 1865 and 1935. She said a total of 9,000 died there, with about 6,000 of them buried in the asylum cemetery.

 She said a list of all the asylum patients would eventually be available online.

 RELATED: Unclaimed remains honored with Oregon hospital memorial

 The Old House Depot in Jackson has some of the iron security grates from the mental institution, including some from where electroshock therapy was done.

 Some grates have been sold for a new, eight-story hotel in Jackson called The Fondren, slated to be built where Kolb’s cleaners was previously located, just blocks from the UMMC campus.

 Roy Decker, a partner with the Duvall Decker architectural firm, said they decided to buy the grates for the 101-room hotel because “places should carry forward their stories. Mississippi is a story-telling place.”

 Plans include installing the grates in the top floor, which will house a bar with a bird’s eye view of the capital city.

 A name being considered for the bar? The Asylum.

 Contact Jerry Mitchell at jmitchell@gannett.com or (601) 961-7064. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

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– On some 20 acres of the 164-acre University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, there's something unexpected underfoot: bodies. The Clarion-Ledger reports there are as many as 7,000 bodies buried on the campus, and they likely belong to patients of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, which in 1855 opened as the state's first mental institution. During the course of 2012 road construction, 66 bodies were uncovered on campus. "In size, they are fairly uniform," wrote the school of the pine coffins that were discovered, "about six feet long but alarmingly narrow, as if each held a pair of stilts instead of a human skeleton." The newspaper in 2014 reported a subsequent 1,000 were found when the school did radar testing in preparation for the construction of a parking garage in a wooded area near the dental school. The number of coffins verified by radar is now double that figure, with estimates topping out at 7,000. The number is the problem: Engaging an outside company to handle the exhumations and reburials would cost $3,000 each, or up to $21 million. So UMMC is weighing doing it itself in an 8-year effort that would cost closer to $3 million. It's possible that in addition to a memorial, a lab would be created that would allow researchers to study the remains and gain insight into asylum living; the asylum was operational until 1935, and the school opened 20 years later.