“National” Crime Story To Be Localized

KY3 has a story: Suspect in custody after 11 people stabbed at Walmart in Michigan:

Eleven people were stabbed at a Walmart in Traverse City on Saturday — with six in critical condition — in what a Michigan sheriff said appeared to be a random act. A suspect was in custody, authorities said.

Around 4:45 p.m., a 42-year-old man entered the store and used a folding knife to stab 11 people, the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on social media. A sheriff’s deputy arrived within minutes and took the man into custody, and people in the store also helped apprehend the suspect and treat victims, the sheriff’s office said.

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Shea said the weapon involved appeared to be a folding-style knife. Shea said the suspect is believed to be a Michigan resident but declined to share further details. Michigan State Police had said earlier in the day that the suspect was in authorities’ custody.

If his name was Cletus McBobson, we’d have a mug shot. Since we do not, we can assume.

And this story, picked up on a slow news night on our local affiliate’s Web site, will have no follow up to dissuade our assumptions about unnamed “Michiganders” who might start randomly knifing people in a crowded place. And our assumption is notably not Sensible knife control now!

UPDATE: I stand corrected; this is apparently the work not of Cletus McBobson, but Bradford Gille, which is not unlike Cletus McBobson.

It looks like he’s getting charged with terrorism:

Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Noelle Moeggenberg told reporters that the terrorism charge will be brought due to the fact that the attack impacted the community, rather than one individual.

Not sure if that’s how I would define terrorism, but the prosecutor sure is being tough in this case. Would she be in all cases? Hopefully, time will not tell.