The nation in brief

— QUOTE OF THE DAY “We need people, just ordinary Americans, to come together, and speak out, and to sit down and calmly reflect on how far we go.”

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois, who said it’s time for a “national discussion” about gun laws in the wake of Friday’s deadly school shooting Article, 1A

Man fires 50 shots in mall parking lot

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A suspect who fired about 50 shots in the parking lot of a crowded Southern California shopping mall, sending shoppers sprinting for safety, was cooperative when officers took him into custody, authorities said Sunday.

Witnesses said people ran, screaming and ducking for cover, when Marcos Gurrola, 42, fired into the air and onto the ground Saturday afternoon near the Macy’s department store at the open-air Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach.

He paused to reload several times, police said.

Then Gurrola put the gun down and offered no resistance when bicycle officers arrested him about 4:30 p.m., said Lt. John Lewis.

Investigators have no motive, Lewis said.

Gurrola, of Garden Grove, was charged with shooting at an inhabited dwelling. He was being held Sunday on $250,000 bail. Police recovered a handgun and ammunition.

Nevada fossils prehistoric cat’s

LAS VEGAS - Researchers say a pair of fossils unearthed in the hills north of Las Vegas belonged to a saber toothed cat.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports a team from California’s San Bernardino County Museum identified the fossils dug up in June as being front leg bones from the extinct predator.

Kathleen Springer, the museum’s senior curator, says the saber-tooth fossils are thought to be about 15,590 years old.

The discovery marks the first of its kind in the fossil rich Upper Las Vegas Wash.

Springer heads a team that’s been studying the wash for a decade and been collecting fossils there under a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management since 2008.

She says the bones of Las Vegas’ only known saber toothed cat are still being studied.

Man attacks three Mennonite women

LANCASTER, Pa. - A 22-year-old man attacked three elderly Mennonite sisters because of their faith, shocking them with a stun gun and vandalizing their home during an hours-long ordeal, police said Sunday.

Dereck Taylor Holt was charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation, burglary and other offenses for the assault in rural central Pennsylvania that sent all three women to the hospital, according to police.

Holt did not know the women, but it appears he targeted them because they were Mennonite, said Northern Lancaster County Regional Police Chief David Steffen.

Holt, who has no fixed address, was arrested Saturday under circumstances that have not been disclosed. He was being held on $1 million bail and it was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.

The victims’ ordeal began Friday morning when Holt posed as an insurance salesman to gain entrance to their house in Clay Township, police said.

The women, who are between 84 and 90 years old, were punched, shocked and tied up, according to police.

The women were hospitalized and “are doing remarkably well considering their age,” Steffen said.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 12/17/2012

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