Ten dead as Alabama gunman goes on rampage

Ten people were killed in Alabama last night — including the wife and child of a police officer — after a gun massacre that brought back grim memories of atrocities in Columbine, Colorado, and Blacksburg, Virginia.

Michael McLendon, 27, began the killing spree in Samson, a town of 2,000 in the southeast of the state, and continued it in nearby Geneva, killing members of his own family and attacking at least one victim along his journey on Highway 52.

He began the day of bloodshed by burning down his mother's house in Kitson, near the Florida border, before moving to Samson where he killed his aunt, uncle and the grandparents who had helped bring him up. Officials have located the body of his mother, Lisa McLendon, inside her still burning house but have not been able to establish if he shot her first.

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