News, March 2004, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Man Accidentally Killed in Masonic Rite
Wed Mar 10, 2004 09:35 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) -
A Masonic initiation ritual ended in tragedy when a man was shot in the head and killed with a gun thought to contain blanks, police said on Tuesday. They said 47-year-old William James was accidentally killed when Albert Eid, 76, confused a loaded .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol with another gun during the induction ceremony in Patchogue, on New York's Long Island, on Monday night.
"During the ceremony, an inductee was shot and killed when a lodge member used a real gun instead of a blank pistol," Suffolk County Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
Police officer Heidi Cummings said Eid pointed a gun at James' head while another member beat a garbage can like a drum as part of the rite in the basement of the suburban Southside Masonic Lodge, about 50 miles east of Manhattan.
Eid was charged with manslaughter and made an initial appearance in court on Tuesday.
Freemasons are an international brotherhood with lodges all over the world with the stated object of mutual assistance. Initiation rites are generally held in private.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python (Alquds, 1/25/03. |
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