14-year-old kills 3 teens in curb store mass shooting

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Convenience stores probably factor into a lot of people’s “wargaming,” at least in the gun community. After all, a lot of crime happens in such places. Mostly, though, you’re thinking about robberies – either within the store or just outside – but that can be limiting.

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After all, a mass shooting can happen anywhere.

In fact, three teens lost their lives on Wednesday to such a shooting in a Texas convenience store.

A 14-year-old boy fired off more than 20 shots at a Texas convenience store, killing three other teenagers and injuring a fourth in a targeted attack, police said Wednesday.

Abel Elias Acosta remains on the loose after the shooting on Sunday and is considered armed and dangerous, Garland Police Department said in a statement.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information leading to Abel’s arrest.

“Detectives believe Abel Acosta is actively evading capture and need the public’s assistance in locating him,” the department said on Facebook.

The alleged gunman, described as just over 5-feet tall and 125 pounds, made his getaway after the killings in a Dodge Ram driven by his father, Richard Acosta, who police said previously turned himself in. Richard Acosta, 33, faces capital murder charges and is being held on a $1 million bond, cops said.

Normally, we exclude the names of the alleged shooters. I’m opting to use it this time because he is at large, and perhaps one of our readers may know him and know where police can find him.

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It’s believed that the attack was targeted at one or more of the victims. This wasn’t some random mass shooting.

This is severely messed up. There’s no other way to put it.

Kids killing kids is always messed up and will always be messed up. However, for the parent to actively participate like this…I bet those parents in Oxford, Michigan, don’t look so bad to some folks right about now, do they?

I mean, they simply didn’t do enough to keep their kid from becoming a murderer. At worst.

They weren’t exactly serving as their kid’s wheelman.

The elder Acosta is facing murder charges, as he should, especially since it’s clear he likely facilitated every aspect of this attack. After all, 14-year-old kids can’t go and buy guns. He probably provided the firearm for his son and then provided transportation.

But what brought this on? What the hell happened that would make this seem like a good idea not just to a kid but his father as well?

The investigation into this one should be illuminating, to say the least. Let’s hope the younger Acosta is apprehended without any further bloodshed so we can get some answers.

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I can’t help but speculate as to what happened here, figuring what we’re seeing is a father trying to help his son deal with bullies, only taking it to an insane point well short of what anyone would consider reasonable. Rather than helping the kid fight back, he just handed him a gun and gave him a ride.

But again, that’s just speculation based on my gut reaction. I don’t know that Acosta was bullied, and I don’t know that any of the victims ever really did anything to Acosta. We simply don’t have enough information just yet. This mass shooting could have happened for any number of reasons. We simply don’t know.

We’ll be keeping an eye out for more, though.

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