XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: gollylocks@aol.com   
      
   A man with a history of psychiatric problems beheaded his mother   
   in her Long Island, N.Y., apartment late Tuesday and then   
   dragged the body and head out onto a street, where onlookers   
   initially thought they were witnessing a macabre Halloween   
   prank, police and witnesses said.   
      
   Patricia Ward, 66, was killed inside her apartment by her son,   
   35-year-old Derek Ward, who jumped in front of a commuter train   
   near the Farmingdale, N.Y., home moments later, killing himself,   
   Nassau County police said.   
      
   Derek Ward was arrested previously for gun possession and   
   criminal mischief and also had a psychiatric history going back   
   about 10 years. Police sources told Newsday that he also had a   
   "drug problem, apparently."   
      
   Patricia Ward was identified by Farmingdale State College as a   
   longtime professor who taught language arts at the university.   
      
   "There's a lot of tears, it’s a sad place today," Patrick   
   Calabria, vice president of institutional advancement at the   
   college, told FoxNews.com. "She was well-known, well-liked and   
   well-respected.”   
      
   Patricia Ward, a 28-year veteran, was a very "popular and   
   devoted" instructor at the school of 8,400 students. Counselors   
   are being provided for students and faculty members, said   
   Calabria, who added that the university is now considering how   
   to memorialize Ward.   
      
   "Right now, the family is grieving, they have to make funeral   
   arrangements," he said. "After things settle down, we’ll be in   
   touch with her relatives to see what they’d like to do."   
      
   Witnesses told the New York Post they saw Derek Ward drag his   
   mother's body out of the building and onto the street, where he   
   kicked her head some 20 feet before going to a nearby railroad   
   track and jumping in front of an eastbound Long Island Railroad   
   train approximately 25 minutes later. Police said his body was   
   found about a mile from the apartment, where the two had moved   
   recently from the neighboring county.   
      
   On the street in front of the apartment, witnesses described a   
   gruesome scene first thought to be part of a prank.   
      
   "There was blood all over the floor," neighbor Nick Gordon told   
   the Post. "You can see smears going down the stairs ... as if   
   somebody were pulling a body."   
      
   Witnesses told the Post that some of the woman's neighbors   
   initially thought the headless body in the street was a   
   Halloween prank, only to discover the body was real after   
   attempting to lift it.   
      
   Witness Jack Imperial, 41, of Queens, was taking a taxi to a   
   meeting when he came across the grisly scene, he told the New   
   York Daily News.   
      
   “The body’s feet were at the curb, the shoulders were at the   
   middle of the street. The head was across the street,” Imperial   
   told the newspaper. “I’ve seen some gruesome stuff in my years   
   of living ... but nothing like this. I didn’t expect to see   
   something like this, especially not out here.”   
      
   A night dispatcher at Yellow Cab in Farmingdale, blocks from   
   where the woman's was found, told Newsday drivers also "thought   
   it was a Halloween prank."   
      
   "At first, everyone thought it was like a Halloween prank,"   
   neighbor Barbara Smalls told The Associated Press, recalling   
   Wednesday morning how she had seen the sheet-covered body. She   
   also "thought maybe it was a mob hit or something."   
      
   "This doesn't happen here," said Smalls. "This is a very nice,   
   nice neighborhood. People are very friendly."   
      
   Police did not initially cite any connection to terrorism,   
   although the incident recalled last month's horrific attack in   
   Moore, Okla., in which an ex-con and recent convert to Islam   
   beheaded a former co-worker at a food processing plant. Also   
   last month, a 25-year-old British man beheaded an 82-year-old   
   woman who was gardening in her yard when she was attacked.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/10/29/police-say-ny-man-beheads-   
   woman-before-jumping-in-front-train/   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)