Bell County Sheriff's Office / Reuters

Nidal Hasan, charged with killing 13 people and wounding 31 in a November 2009 shooting spree at Fort Hood, Texas, is pictured in an undated Bell County Sheriff's Office photograph.

An Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 and wounding nearly three dozen others at a Fort Hood, Texas, military post in 2009 has been denied a trial delay by a judge.

Major Nidal Hasan, 42, who has been allowed to represent himself, had requested a three-month postponement to his trial so he could prepare more. Military Judge Col. Tara Osborn refused the request Tuesday, and said jury selection was set for July 9 and was expected to last for four weeks; testimony will start Aug. 6 at the earliest. 

Hasan's court martial has been sidetracked numerous times by questions over his legal representation and the beard he has, which violates military dress code. Opening statements had been scheduled to begin on July 1.

Most of those killed in the shooting four years ago at Fort Hood, a staging base for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, were military personnel. Hasan was shot four times by civilian police after the attack.

Hasan, who was born in the U.S. and is Muslim, could face the death penalty in the trial. He has been charged with 13 counts of first-degree murder; 32 others were wounded.

Osborn ruled last week that Hasan could not use as a defense that he carried out the base shooting in an attempt to protect Taliban leaders in Afghanistan.

According to witnesses, a gunman in an army combat uniform opened fire in a packed medical building on Nov. 5, 2009, stopping only to reload his weapon. 

None of the victims posed an “immediate imminent threat” to Taliban personnel in Afghanistan, the judge said.

Although Hasan is representing himself, Osborn ordered his three former defense attorneys to remain on the case and to offer assistance to him if he requests help.

Hasan's trial was initially slated for March 2012, but was delayed twice because defense attorneys said they needed more time to prepare. It was delayed a third time last fall when Hasan appealed an order from then-judge Col. Gregory Gross that his beard be forcibly shaved if he didn't remove it before his trial. 

Gross was ousted from the case and his order was thrown out, and court proceedings resumed in December with the current judge.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• Fort Hood suspect, defense attorneys at odds
• Judge bans Fort Hood suspect's defense strategy
• Judge rules Fort Hood suspect can represent himself

Ogden Police Dept.

Charles Richard Jennings is accused of shooting a man who was attending church in Utah on Sunday.

A Utah man was critically injured Sunday after he was shot in the back of the head while attending Mass.

Police in Ogden, Utah, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City, say Charles Richard Jennings, 35, entered  St. James Catholic Church and confronted the victim before shooting him. 

Authorities believe Jennings then pulled out a gun in the church and fired at the man, whose name has not yet been released. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital where he remained in critical condition Sunday evening.

Ogden police said in a statement that, "The suspect was specific in the desired target and action," and no one else was hurt during the altercation.

Jennings was at large earlier in the day before he was captured, following a search operation that involved authorities throughout the state.

NBC's Salt Lake City affiliate KSL-TV reported that parishioners dove under pews when they heard the gunshot.  

Police said the alleged shooter is related to the victim through marriage, according to KSL.

Metro Nashville Police

Police were seeking Earnest Woodley, also known as Earnest Moore, 39, a convicted murderer with a long criminal record.

A woman and her three teenage daughters who were wounded when the woman's barefoot boyfriend shot them Friday in Nashville, Tenn., were listed as stable at a Nashville hospital Friday night, police said.

Police were seeking Earnest Woodley, 39, also known as Earnest Moore, a convicted murderer with a long criminal record. Police said Woodley, who was charged late Friday with four counts each of attempted homicide and aggravated assault, fled wearing a gray T-shirt, blue shorts and no shoes.

Nicole Luke, 34, her twin 14-year-old daughters, Deona and Keona Luke, and their 15-year-old sister, Kierra Smith, were all shot Friday afternoon at an apartment complex in the Madison neighborhood of northeast Nashville.

Luke, Woodley and the three girls were in two vehicles driving to Memphis, where they were all moving, when they stopped at the complex to visit a cousin of Woodley's, police said. All but Kierra went inside.

Woodley's cousin told police that Luke and Woodley began arguing before Woodley shot Luke, Deona and Keona. He then went outside and shot Kierra, police said.

Three other children who were at the scene weren't injured: Woodley's and Luke's 3-year-old daughter and the cousin's two sons, ages 7 and 13, police said.

A witness, Courtney Hiles, told NBC station WSMV in an on-air interview that she first heard two gunshots and then four more.

"We went outside and saw the man running past our house, so we went over here to see what had happened and we saw the car," Hiles said. "There was a lady in the front seat, and she had been shot, and all of the windows in the car had been shot out."

Woodley remained at large Friday night and should be considered armed and extremely dangerous, police said.

Woodley, sometimes using the name Moore, has a long criminal record, state corrections records show. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 1991 and finished parole in 2010. His other convictions include aggravated assault and cocaine possession.

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This story was originally published on Fri Jun 14, 2013 7:17 PM EDT

Six months after 20 children and six adults were killed in their classrooms at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the grief-stricken residents of Newtown, Conn., gathered to remember the tragedy.

A moment of silence lasting 26 seconds was held on Friday morning, and included the reading of the names of the victims by relatives. Starting at 4:30 p.m. local time, teachers from Sandy Hook Elementary School planned to begin reading the names of people killed by gun violence to date since the shooting.

Family members of the December shooting’s victims have become crucial to a continued push to pass new national legislation restricting the purchase and ownership of high-power firearms, an effort that has faltered since a bipartisan background check bill fell in the Senate in April.

A handful of states, including New York and Colorado, passed new gun laws after the shooting.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a group founded by New York City Michael Bloomberg that lobbies for stricter gun laws, planned to launch a 25-state tour from Newtown on Friday.

Family members took to the steps of Capitol Hill on Thursday to read the names of those killed and petition lawmakers to pass stricter gun-control laws. Those efforts may bear fruit, said Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

“Members of the Senate know what the right thing to do here is, and ultimately a whole bunch of them decided to vote with the NRA because they were worried about their political tales, and their heart strings still matter,” Murphy said on MSNBC on Thursday.

“But second, what’s really happened over the course of this whole year is that a political infrastructure has been built around gun violence reform, and there are a lot of senators who are coming up to me on the Senate floor and saying, you know what, I’m not real excited about going up against this movement next fall, is there a way that maybe we can get this bill back on the floor, make it a little better, and try to take a second vote,” Murphy said.

Erica Lafferty, whose mother was the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary, confronted Sen. Kelly Ayotte about her no vote on the background check bill during an April town hall meeting in New Hampshire.

A number of other senators, including Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona and Montana Democrat Max Baucus, faced criticism for voting against the background check bill, which polls show had widespread support among Americans.

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, who headed a gun policy task force put together after the shooting, visited on Thursday with family members of the Newtown victims.

“We want them to know that, as we approach the six-month anniversary of that terrible day, we will never forget and we will continue to fight alongside them,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. 

Related:

• Newtown families return to Hill as administration restarts gun control push
• Appearing with Newtown families, Dems vow to push forward on gun control
• Gun vote stirs passion at Ayotte town hall meetings

KSDK-TV

Police respond to a fatal shooting Thursday, June 13, on Cherokee Street in St. Louis.

Four employees of a home health care business were killed in a murder-suicide Thursday in St. Louis, police said.

The gunman, a second man and two women were found shortly after 1:30 p.m. in the office of A K Home Health Care on the first floor of the Cherokee Place Business Incubator, which renovates buildings on the street and leases them as work spaces, police said. 

Police identified the gunman late Thursday as Ahmed Dirir, 59. State and federal licensing records list a man with that name as the company's director.

His three victims were identified as Khadra Muse, 44; Seaeed Abdulla, 29; and Bernice Solomon-Redd, 54.

Police Capt. Michael Sack told reporters that video from a surveillance camera showed the gunman having an argument with the three others before opening fire. 

"It appeared to be brief," he said. "We don't know if this was a thing that carried over into today or was initiated today."

The weapon, a semi-automatic handgun, was recovered at the scene, he said.

Abdisalam Elmi, a Somali immigrant who drives a cab, told NBC station KSDK of St. Louis that he knew all four victims. 

"They are very hard workers," he said in an on-camera interview. "They're friendly. They always smile for me."

"This is the worst day in my life," he said, adding: "I pray for peace, for love, no hate."

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This story was originally published on Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:25 PM EDT

Santa Monica Police Department via AP

John Zawahri, 23, who police have identified as the shooter in Friday's deadly rampage at Santa Monica College.

A fifth victim of the horrific shooting spree in Santa Monica, Calif., was confirmed dead Sunday as law enforcement officials revealed the name of the suspected gunman.

John Zawahri, 23, was identified by police as the heavily armed man who rampaged through a mile-long stretch of the coastal city Friday, dressed head to toe in black and carrying an AR-15 assault rifle as well as a duffel bag stuffed with as much as 1,800 rounds of ammunition, law enforcement officials said Sunday.

Zawahri is accused of gunning down five people near a community college campus, before being fatally shot himself by police.

The fifth victim, Marcela Dia Franco, 26 — who along with her father, Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, was fatally shot by the suspect as he stormed Santa Monica College —  was taken off life support at a West Los Angeles hospital Saturday night, the victim's family told NBC Los Angeles Sunday.

Law enforcement officials also confirmed that the two of the gunman's victims —  a pair found dead in a burning house fewer than 20 blocks away from the campus where the shooting spree came to a bloody climax — were Zawahri’s 55-year-old father, Samir, and 24-year-old brother, Christopher.

Zawahri, who was due to turn 24 on Saturday, allegedly murdered the two men before setting his father’s house ablaze just before 12 p.m. and fleeing the scene on foot, sources said.

As firefighters officials first arrived at the scene to extinguish the blaze, the gunman carjacked a vehicle being driven by an adult woman and threatened to murder her if she didn’t drive him to the nearby college campus, Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said Saturday.

The gunman demanded the woman stop at various points along the mile-long ride so he could fire indiscriminately at passing cars, police said.

He shot at a woman driving past the scene of the carjacking, wounding her, and later sprayed bullets at a public bus, shattering glass and injuring three people.

As they approached the SMC campus, the shooter fired at Carlos Navarro Franco while he sat behind the wheel of his SUV, which spun out of control and careened into a wall, according to Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office investigator Joyce Kato. Carlos, a groundskeeper at the school, died instantly.

His passenger, daughter Marcela, was transported to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in West Los Angeles, where she passed away Saturday night.

With police officers in pursuit, the gunman abandoned the shaken motorist and darted toward the library, shooting randomly.

One bullet struck and killed an unidentified adult woman in her 50s outside the library building, police said.

Amid the hail of gunfire, students scattered and took shelter in a provisional safe room, barricading the door with any available objects to keep the gunman away.

Officers arrived at the library shortly after noon and exchanged a volley of bullets with the suspect before wounding him. The injured suspect was then taken outside, where he was pronounced dead around 12:05 p.m.

Law-enforcement sources said Sunday that “open source postings” found online suggest that Zawahri suffered from emotional and psychological problems. They added, however, that there “was nothing found through open source searches that would indicate that Zawahri had subscribed to any extremist ideologies.”

The police chief said Saturday that law enforcement officials had an unspecified brush with the man seven years ago, but Seabrooks did not comment on the 2006 incident because he was a juvenile at the time.

This story was originally published on Sun Jun 9, 2013 3:44 PM EDT

The man accused of gunning down four people and injuring five others on Friday during a shooting rampage in Santa Monica, Calif., had as much as 1,300 rounds of ammunition on him and planned the attack that only ended when he was shot and killed by responders, the city’s police chief said Saturday.

Santa Monica Police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks said the shooter carried a semi-automatic rifle and a duffle bag stuffed with ammunition magazines as he cut a violent path through a mile-long stretch of the coastal city.

“Any time someone puts on a vest of some sort, comes out with a bag full of loaded magazines, has an extra receiver, has a handgun and has a semi-automatic rifle, carjacks folks, goes to a college, kills more people, and has to be neutralized at the hands of the police, I would say that that’s premeditated,” Seabrooks said.

The police chief said law enforcement officials had unspecified “contact” with the man seven years ago, but Seabrooks did not comment on the 2006 incident because he was a juvenile at the time.

Police are working to confirm the gunman’s relationship with the two people found dead in a burning house blocks away from the Santa Monica College campus where the shooting spree came to a bloody climax.

Seabrooks did not identify the suspect but described him as a “cowardly murderer.” He was due to turn 24 on Saturday, she said.

County officials earlier Saturday identified one of the four people killed during the bloodshed Friday. Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, was fatally struck by a bullet behind the wheel of his SUV, which spun out of control and careened into a wall, according to Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office investigator Joyce Kato.

In a statement, Santa Monica Community College President Chui Tsang described Franco, a groundskeeper at the college, as a dedicated worker for 22 years who would be sorely missed.

“He tried to make people happy and make sure he did the best job he could," Franco's supervisor, Tom Corpus said. "He was just a great asset to the college. Everything Carlos did was for the college and for his family.”

Franco's youngest daughter, Marcela, 26, who was a student at CSU Dominguez Hills, was also one of the victims of Friday's shootings, the statement said. She was in critical condition at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and not expected to survive.

Authorities had pieced together a chronology of events by Saturday that draws a westward line from the burning home nestled near the Santa Monica Freeway to the beachside campus of Santa Monica College.

Tami Abdollah / AP

Weapons and other evidence recovered from the gunman in Friday's deadly shooting rampage that left four people dead, in Santa Monica, Calif are displayed Saturday June 8, 2013, in Santa Monica.

Police said the carnage began around 11:52 a.m. on Friday, when officials responded to reports of gunfire and a growing blaze at a private residence fewer than 20 blocks away from the campus. Responding officers found two people believed to have been fatally shot by the gunman inside the flame-engulfed home, Seabrooks said. Officials are still working to identify the cause of the blaze, Santa Monica Fire Chief Scott Ferguson said.

Shortly before noon, the gunman is reported to have fled on foot, firing randomly at passing vehicles, wounding one woman. He then carjacked a vehicle being driven by an adult woman and threatened to murder her if she didn’t drive him to the nearby college campus, Seabrooks said.

The gunman demanded the woman stop at various points along the mile-long ride to the campus so he could fire erratically at passing cars, police said. He sprayed bullets at a public bus, shattering glass and injuring three people, and then fired at Franco in his SUV, killing him and seriously wounding his daughter, police said.

With police officers in pursuit, the gunman abandoned the shaken motorist and darted toward the library, shooting indiscriminately. One bullet struck and killed an adult woman in her 50s outside the library building, police said.

 More coverage from NBCLosAngeles.com

Amid the hail of gunfire, students scattered and took shelter in a provisional safe room, barricading the door with any available objects to keep the gunman away. Officers arrived at the library shortly after noon and exchanging a volley of bullets with the suspect before wounding him. The injured suspect was then taken outside, where he was pronounced dead around 12:05 p.m.

Seabrooks said five people were hurt in the shooting – the woman driving by the carjacking, the three people on the bus, and Franco's daughter.

The gunman was described by authorities as a male Caucasian between the ages of 25 and 30. He was dressed head to toe in black and sported what authorities said appeared to be a bullet-proof vest.

Friday’s violence unfolded as President Barack Obama prepared to attend a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at a private home at 2 p.m. local time.

Richard Esposito, M. Alex Johnson and Niven McCall-Mazza of NBC News contributed to this report.

Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

Santa Monica police search the grounds of Santa Monica College after multiple shootings were reported on the campus in Santa Monica, California.

This story was originally published on Sun Jun 9, 2013 1:37 AM EDT

A 4-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his father Friday afternoon at a residence in Prescott, Ariz., police said.

The Prescott Valley Police Department responded to a report of gunshots at 12:36 p.m. and found an adult male who had sustained a gunshot wound in a residence, said Police Sgt. Brandon Bonney. The man was transported to the nearby Yavapai Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Bonney said that the boy found a handgun and was apparently "making inquisitive statements to his father regarding the firearm and, while we he was doing so, shot his father in the chest."

Bonney said the father and son were from Phoenix and were visiting the male resident of a duplex apartment where the shooting occurred. He said the man they were visiting is the owner of the gun and was the only witness.

Police did not immediately identify the victim, pending notification of next of kin.

Bardstown Police Dept.

Bardstown, Ky., police officer Jason Ellis was killed in an ambush on Saturday. Police said they have no suspects.

Kentucky police said they are hunting for clues in the "premeditated" murder of a K-9 officer who was lured out of his cruiser and blasted with a shotgun.

Investigators believe the killer may have planted road debris on the Bluegrass Parkway and then lay in wait for someone to stop and pick it up.

They are not sure if Bardstown Police Officer Jason Ellis was the intended target of the Saturday night ambush or if the shooter planned to fire randomly on the first person who stopped.

“Someone planned this, and someone planned to shoot someone at that spot and at that time,” Kentucky State Police Master Trooper Norman Chaffins said at a Sunday briefing.

Police asked for anyone who had seen anything unusual in the area in recent days to get in touch, but there are no strong leads.

"We've received some information but not a tremendous amount," Lt. Jeremy Thompson said Monday.

Ellis, 33, did not have a partner with him and was likely on his way home when he was killed on the exit ramp about 40 miles southeast of Louisville, police said.

Passersby called 911 and reported a car crash, but the trooper who responded "quickly noticed that this was no traffic accident," Chaffins said.

"Officer Ellis was shot multiple times and was ambushed as he exited his cruiser," Chaffins added. "Officer Ellis never fired a shot from his service weapon. It was still holstered."

He said there are no suspects and raised the possibility that more than one person may have been involved. Police did not provide a description of the debris that was left on the ramp.

A funeral for Ellis, a married father of two who had been on the police force for seven years, is scheduled for Thursday.

Ibragim Todashev is seen in a mug shot on May 4 after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando. Todashev, who was being questioned in Orlando by authorities in the Boston bombing probe, was fatally shot on May 22, when he initiated a violent confrontation, FBI officials said.

The father of the man who was  killed by FBI agents — after allegedly admitting he and Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev committed a triple homicide in 2011 — claims that his son is innocent and federal investigators made up their case against him.

Investigators say Ibragim Todashev told them on Wednesday that he and Tsarnaev killed three people in a Boston suburb two years ago in what sources say was a drug ripoff gone bad.

Law enforcement officials said that, while confessing to the slayings, Todashev was shot and killed after attacking an agent with a knife.

But Todashev's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, told NBC News on Thursday that the FBI "made up their accusations" and that the American investigators are biased against Chechens.

"My son did not kill anybody ... they [the FBI] were eager to present my son as Tsarnaev’s friend. My son could never commit a crime, I know my son well," Abdul-Baki Todashev said in a phone interview from Chechnya.

Investigators questioned his 27-year-old son in Orlando, Fla. as part of the FBI’s effort to find anyone who had any contact with the Tsarnaev brothers. Todashev was not considered a suspect in the Boston bombings that killed three people and injured scores more last month.

What is still not clear is why Todashev would have implicated himself and Tsarnaev in the unsolved murders.

Investigators say he confessed to the agent in Florida that he played a role in a triple murder in which three men were discovered slain in an apartment in Waltham, Mass. Brendan Mess, 25; Raphael Teken, 37; and Eric Weissman, 31, were found with their throats cut in September of 2011, and their bodies were covered with marijuana. Law enforcement sources told NBC News Wednesday that the slayings were simply the result of a drug deal gone bad.

No suspects had been arrested in that case, and Waltham prosecutors said Thursday they still consider it an "open and active" investigation.

The parents of suspected marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have also maintained that their children are innocent. Though sources have told NBC News that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev scribbled his reasoning behind the bombing in a boat he was hiding in before his capture by police.

Abdul-Baki Todashev said he found out that his son was killed when a family member saw it on the Internet. He said his son and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were not close friends, but did say they were acquaintances that went to the same gym.

His son had a green card, he said, and recently had knee surgery that delayed a planned trip back to Russia.

"He told me that the state paid his medical insurance and that they did not want him to leave the country until he compensated (sic). But now I think may be FBI took his air ticket from him," Todashev said.

Less than a day after the shooting an FBI review team from Washington was on the ground in Florida to investigate the death, officials said. Witnesses in the room when the shooting occurred will be questioned, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers.

Meanwhile on Thursday, the federal magistrate judge handling the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev case rescheduled a probable cause hearing originally set for May 30 -- the next legal step -- for July 10th at 11 am.

The hearing was originally set for May 30th, but both prosecutors and defense lawyers asked for a delay, citing what they called "the complex factual and legal issues present in this case and the need for adequate time to obtain and review evidence."

NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report

This story was originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 7:28 PM EDT