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Benjamin Pollard
Monday, July 18, 2022, 4:47 PM

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A gunman killed three people and injured two others in a shooting at an Indianapolis mall on Sunday. The gunman was shot and killed by a lawfully armed 22-year old bystander, according to police. The motive of the shooter—who reportedly executed the attack with a long-gun rifle and multiple magazines of ammunition—is currently unknown. Four women and one man were identified as victims of the attack, including a 12-year-old girl who sustained minor injuries.

The special Texas House committee to investigate the Robb Elementary shooting released a 77-page report on Sunday detailing a widespread failure by law enforcement to respond to the shooting at the Uvalde, Texas school while it was happening. The report states that the school police chief, federal, and state authorities are all responsible for the failure to adequately address the massacre. The report details that 400 officers arrived outside of the school during the shooting, but only a fraction entered the building to confront the gunman, writes the New York Times.

Jury selection began for the federal trial of Steve Bannon over his refusal to comply with the House select committee’s Jan. 6 investigation. The Justice Department indicted Bannon following Congress’s vote to hold him in contempt for evading the committee’s subpoena. Bannon was first subpoenaed by the select committee in September 2021 for records and testimony. Bannon recently offered to publicly testify in front of the select committee, a shift which prosecutors have called a stunt intended to garner sympathy from the jury.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired his top security chief and prosecutor general on Sunday. Zelenskyy’s decision was in response to the opening of hundreds of high treason cases into officials from both of their offices for collaboration with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. 

A plane carrying Serbian-made weapons to Bangladesh crashed in northern Greece, killing all eight passengers on the aircraft. The pilot of the aircraft reportedly intended to make an emergency landing at an airport in Greece as a result of engine problems. Despite his efforts, the plane was unable to make it to the runway. The plane was operated by a Ukrainian airline and all crew members are believed to have been Ukrainian citizens, writes the BBC.

Russian forces were ordered by the country’s defense minister to increase attacks on Ukraine. The directive comes after President Vladimir Putin made claims that Russia’s war in Ukraine had not “started in earnest yet.” Meanwhile in Ukraine, missile strikes killed five people and injured four others in Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk on Saturday.

ICYMI: This Weekend on Lawfare

Bennett Clifford and Seamus Hughes discussed past U.S. government attempts to create a nationwide policy to counter violent extremism, and argued that more limited programs are likely to achieve greater success at reducing terrorism and violent extremism.

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Benjamin Pollard is a student at Brown University studying history and political science. He is a former intern at Lawfare.

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