‘The Voice’ singer Christina Grimmie dies after shooting
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Florida authorities say “The Voice” star Christina Grimmie is in critical condition after being shot at a concert venue in Orlando by a suspect who then fatally shot himself.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Singer Christina Grimmie was shot after a concert at The Plaza Live Friday night, June 10, 2016, in Orlando, Fla. A publicist for Grimmie says “The Voice” star has died after being shot at a concert venue in Florida. Police said in a news release that the 22-year-old singer’s brother tackled the gunman after the shooting Friday night.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The suspect has been identified as 27-year-old Kevin Loibl of St. Petersburg, Florida.
ORLANDO, Fla. » A gunman who shot and killed a singer who rose to fame after appearing on “The Voice” traveled to Orlando from another Florida city specifically to attack her and then fatally shot himself, authorities said Saturday.
Orlando Police Chief John Mina said at a news conference that the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Kevin Loibl of St. Petersburg, Florida, didn’t appear to know Christina Grimmie personally. Grimmie was shot to death after giving a concert in Orlando on Friday night. She died early Saturday.
“She was doing a meet-and-greet, just signing autographs and selling merchandise. This white male approached her and opened fire, striking her,” Mina said. “We believe he came here to commit this crime.”
The 22-year-old singer from New Jersey finished third during season six of NBC’s “The Voice” in 2014, competing on the team of Maroon 5 star Adam Levine. She began amassing a following on YouTube as a teenager, gripping online viewers with her powerful renditions of hit songs. Her videos on YouTube have garnered millions of views.
In an earlier statement, police said Grimmie had performed with the band Before You Exit at The Plaza Live in Orlando. The concert ended around 10 p.m., and Grimmie was shot as she signed autographs for fans at a merchandise table in The Plaza Live concert venue.
Grimmie’s brother, Marcus, immediately tackled the gunman, who then shot and killed himself during the struggle, police said. They credited the singer’s brother with preventing the gunman from hurting others. Around 120 others were in The Plaza Live at the time.
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“Very heroic actions by Marcus Grimmie to jump in and it definitely could have prevented further loss of life,” Mina said.
After the concert, 17-year-old Kaitlin Martin was standing with a group of other fans outside The Plaza Live, waiting for members of Before You Exit to come out, when she heard several loud “pops.”
“We thought at first they were balloons … but then security started running all over the place yelling at people to get out because someone has a gun and someone is shooting. Everyone is just running all over the place,” said Martin, who traveled to see to the concert from Brunswick, Georgia. “It was chaos.”
Martin said she was unsettled knowing the suspect had watched the concert in the same audience she was in.
“This person was in the crowd with us, and while we were singing, having a great time, he was there with different intentions,” she said.
Detectives were searching Loibl’s cellphone and social media accounts looking for clues as to a motive, Mina said, but they weren’t aware of any history of stalking of Grimmie by the suspect.
Loibl had on him two handguns, two loaded magazines and a hunting knife, Mina said.
There were unarmed security guards at The Plaza Live and they checked bags and purses for contraband, but there were no metal detectors or pat-downs of people as they entered The Plaza Live, he said.
A spokeswoman said all events at The Plaza Live had been suspended until further notice.
Loibl had made travel arrangement to come to Orlando alone, as well as travel arrangements to go back home, but he didn’t have a car, Mina said. The police chief wouldn’t elaborate further.
Grimmie had posted a video of herself shortly before the concert was scheduled to begin, encouraging fans to come see her perform.
Levine posted a photo of himself with Grimmie on Instagram, commenting before her death was confirmed: “I’m sad, shocked and confused. We love you so much Grimmie. We are all praying hard that you can pull through this … this just isn’t fair.”
“The Voice” paid tribute to Grimmie on its official Twitter page: “There are no words. We lost a beautiful soul with an amazing voice.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 2014 that Grimmie moved to Los Angeles in 2012 after joining Selena Gomez on tour to focus on her singing career.
“I’m done being surprised by cool things she does. She’s very talented and she’s worked incredibly hard — it’s a dangerous combination,” her brother told the newspaper at the time.
25 responses to “‘The Voice’ singer Christina Grimmie dies after shooting”
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How many hours (or minutes) will pass before the NRA announces, once again, that it’s too soon to talk about gun violence.
And “How many hours (or minutes) will pass before” the anti-Second Amendment crowd will exploit this terrible tragedy for their radical political agenda?
can’t waste a good killing right.
I don’t understand your attitude. Isn’t when something happens the exact right time to talk about why it happens? If your basement flooded, would you really say “Oh, it’s too soon to talk about if the pipes were faulty.”
Hardly radical–towards that end, why don’t you provide a definition, if you are capable of such articulation and lucid cognitive thought, on what constitutes radical in this context??
Chirp chirp silence–that’s what I thought –another effete pillock.
Typical and predictable ad hominem attack from the very Trump-like (sans the success and ivy league education) intellectual pretender.
Oh, c’mon. Are we channeling the Professor from Gilligan’s Island now?
Hahah….where do you think I went to school? And here is a hint, google “boola-boola”. A far better school than Trump could ever get into…and for success, I have no bankruptcies and have never laid off an employee….never.
So, bull, if you think your so rough or smart, where did you go to school….KCC….that’s what I thought, mr simp.
Yale is impressive, congratulations to you and George Bush, but so is Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. You both reflexively resort to mean-spirited ad hominem attacks, but rarely contribute anything of substance to the conversation. Regarding success, few billionaires, or millionaires, achieve that level without a few failures along the way. As for me, I earned an advanced degree from a top ten rated national university.
You could have easily stated what constitutes radical, instead, you make this rather unsupported assertion that I am attacking you–please, if you going to state a point of view, take the time to provide the rationale, otherwise it merely falls into the category of pithy platitude.
And BTW, it is fairly well known within Penn circles, that his family purchased his admission. As for his purported business acumen, a fairly simple business case study would reveal that even as Trump companies did poorly, Mr. Trump did well. He put up little of his own money, shifted personal debts to the casinos and collected millions of dollars in salary, bonuses and other payments. The burden of his failures fell on investors and others who had bet on his business acumen, much of this to taxpayers, who actually underwrite federal bankruptcies…….
@Palani: “Typical and predictable ad hominem attack from the very Trump-like (sans the success and ivy league education) intellectual pretender.”
Way to go on substantive posting.
How many hours (or minutes) will pass before the the department of transportation announces, once again, that it’s too soon to talk about people leaving babies locked in their cars left to suffocate to death in 100 degree weather? Please stop trolling! Mental illness kills, not guns, a mentally ill person might kill with any instrument feasibly convenient.
The gun lobby loves to blame mental illness, not guns, for a rate of gun violence in the US that is exceeded only by the extreme levels of violence in Central and South America, but major studies have disproved that false conclusion. As the New Yorker reported in an article titled “Is There A Link between Mental Health and gun Violence?” –– “A … study of over a thousand discharged psychiatric inpatients, known as the MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study, found that, a year after their release, patients were only more likely than the average person to be violent if they were also abusing alcohol or drugs. Absent substance abuse, they were no more likely to act violently than were a set of randomly selected neighbors. Two years ago, an analysis of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (which contained data on more than thirty-two thousand individuals) found that just under three per cent of people suffering from severe mental illness had acted violently in the last year, as compared to just under one per cent of the general population. Those who also abused alcohol or drugs were at an elevated, ten-per-cent risk.”
Goddammed psychos. (>L<)
On point.
No, it’s guns, not psychos, that are the problem. The alleged connection between mental illness and gun violence is misinformation that is spread by the NRA, and, as is the case with virtually everything from the NRA, it is bogus.
Never heard of a gun firing on it’s own accord….please provide a link please,
The people wielding the weapons are solely to blame. A gun by itself cannot do anything unless someone chooses to utilize it.
Why can’t these lunatics just kill themselves and not take an innocent person with them! ?
They are usually powerless nitwits who want to once be important and they enjoyed the power over a human life.
2014 firearms related death rate per 100,000 population:
United States – 10.54
Canada – 1.97
United Kingdom – 0.23
Australia – 0.93
bs your statistic shows nothing – what matters only is murder rate per 100000: USA 3.43 Switzerland 0.23 -where every normal male has guns and on weekends you can see them travelling around with it openly on public transportation. What this shows is that the US culture creates more violent subhumans .
I’ve never heard you need to be a member of the NRA to own a gun.
Tell that to the bs person above.