Shooter

How to describe "Shooter"? Mark Wahlberg's bid to become the next Clint Eastwood ? An action-film Humvee with a "support our troops" ribbon magnet slapped on the back? How about "Rambo" as Al Franken might have imagined it? That's about right: The new film from "Training Day" director Antoine Fuqua -- he's what you'd get if you put an auteurist on steroids -- is a stylish but essentially businesslike smash-and-crasher about a special forces sniper who gets used by a shadow arm of the US government, only to come back for bloody revenge.

The "new shooters" are all long shots in the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. The new-shooter angle has long been studied by handicappers analyzing the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. The theory holds that new shooters, horses who did not run in the Kentucky Derby two weeks earlier, hold a possible advantage. For starters, most new shooters are fresher, having had more time to recuperate since their last race. They are also not dinged up, having avoided the 20-horse stampede in the Derby.

State officials say a Massachusetts man killed on a hunting expedition with family members died of a single gunshot wound to the neck. Fish and Game officials said Kenneth Brunelle, 31, of Marlborough, Mass., was with his father and brother in Lisbon in northern New Hampshire Wednesday morning when he was struck by a bullet fired from a high-velocity weapon. Officials identified the shooter as Wade Holmes, 48, of Lisbon. No charges have been filed. Fish and Game Sergeant Brian Suttmeier said results of an investigation will go to the Grafton county attorney for review.

A Swede charged with three counts of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder in a string of shootings that spread fear among immigrants in the city of Malmo pleaded not guilty as his trial started Monday. Peter Mangs, 40, a social dropout with a psychiatric history, listened quietly as the charges were read in the packed courtroom. Mangs was arrested in November 2010 following a manhunt for a gunman police had linked to more than a dozen shootings in 2009-2010. Investigators later linked him to two 2003 murders.

When the Cohasset High boys fell into a 5-1 hole against Weston in the Division 3 East semifinals last week, Skippers captain Thomas Flibotte , as he often has, tried corralling the game with his own two hands. Flibotte is a pure shooter — “He’s our Ray Allen ,’’ coach Tom Flanagan said — and with his team down, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Flibotte opened fire like Yosemite Sam at a rifle range. Flibotte lasered nine shots at the Weston net between the time Cohasset slipped into the four-goal deficit and the final buzzer.

A man accused of firing shots at the White House in an attempt to kill President Barack Obama in November is scheduled to be back in court. Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho is due in court for a hearing Wednesday. Ortega is accused of using an assault rifle to fire at the White House on the evening of Nov. 11, when Obama was out of town. One bullet smashed into a window of the living quarters of the executive mansion but was stopped by ballistic glass. Acquaintances have said he acted strangely in recent months, suggesting he believed he was Jesus and...

Opposing coaches are used to scheming to try to corral Babson College's powerful frontcourt of Kathleen King, Nicki Wurdeman, and Sarah Collins. Collectively, the trio averages a little more than 50 points per game for the women's basketball team. There is a new wrinkle to the Babson attack, however, in Erin Young, a 5-foot-5 freshman guard from Westwood. The sharpshooter provides a strong perimeter presence and another weapon in an arsenal that has pushed Babson to a 14-2 record, including a perfect 10-0 in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic...

MADISON, Wis. - The online gun dealer who sold a weapon to the Virginia Tech shooter said it was an unnerving coincidence that he also sold handgun accessories to the man who killed five students at Northern Illinois University. Eric Thompson said his website, topglock.com, sold two empty 9 mm Glock magazines and a Glock holster to Steven Kazmierczak Feb. 4, just 10 days before the 27-year-old opened fire in a classroom and killed five before committing suicide. Another website run by Thompson's company, thegunstore.com, also sold a...

There’s waaaaay too much smoke for there not to have been at least a small campfire. Something has been going on with Rajon Rondo. Of course, Danny Ainge implies that the Celtics haven’t been actively trying to move him. That’s a standard GM response. “We love Rondo,’’ Ainge said on WEEI yesterday morning, “and Rondo is a player we want to have on our team.’’ Check the wording. Nowhere in there does he specifically deny trying to market his 23-year-old point guard.

It is worth noting that the New Hampshire shooter, Cullen Mutrie, reportedly owned several guns, likely due to the permissive gun laws in New Hampshire ("A sense of duty meets senseless violence; Alleged shooter found dead; had long history of mayhem," Page A1, April 14). Meanwhile, Mitt Romney pandered to the NRA, helping perpetuate the gun industry-funded myth that we citizens are safer owning guns. When will this madness stop? Alan Wright Dedham

Police searched Sunday for a drive-by shooter who gunned down the president of a San Diego motorcycle club as he worked in the clubhouse driveway, while members of the group he led mourned and paid tribute to the man they called "Wild Dogg. " Detectives haven't identified a motive for the killing of Clyde Thompson Jr., 51, president of the original chapter of the nationwide Black Sabbath Motorcycle Club, police said. Thompson was working on his bike alongside a friend Friday night when an SUV pulled up and a passenger opened fire, San Diego police Lt. Ernie Herbert said.

German police say a SWAT team overwhelmed an unidentified man who fired several shots inside a church. Police say officers stormed the church in the western city of Siegen on Sunday afternoon about six hours after the man had locked himself inside the building. A church employee was initially threatened by the man but managed to escape, leaving the attacker by himself inside the building for hours. German news agency dapd reported the man was injured during the raid and was hospitalized.

KABUL - A man wearing an Afghan Army uniform fatally shot an American service member in southern Afghanistan, officials said Thursday, the latest in a string of attacks against US and other foreign forces by their Afghan partners or insurgents in disguise. Since the beginning of the year, there have been at least 16 such attacks against American and other international troops. The shootings have strained US-Afghan ties already suffering from a lack of trust following the Koran burnings at a US base and the alleged killing spree by an American soldier in the south in recent...

Court documents say the man who shot five police officers outside his Greenland home phoned a friend to say he had shot them. Based on police affidavits released Friday, the Portsmouth Herald reported that Cullen Mutrie told the friend that he did not intend to leave alive after shooting the officers who showed up at his home April 12 as part of a drug investigation. Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was killed, and four members of the attorney general's Drug Task Force were wounded.

SANFORD, Fla. - A routine bail hearing for George Zimmerman took a surprising turn into remorse and explanation Friday when the neighborhood watch volunteer got on the witness stand and told Trayvon Martin's parents: "I am sorry for the loss of your son. " "I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am. I did not know if he was armed or not," Zimmerman said, marking the first time he has spoken publicly about...

Life imitates art — no matter how ugly. The world was reminded of this Thursday when Anders Behring Breivik revealed to an Oslo court that the popular military game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" and the online role-playing game "World of Warcraft" helped condition him for his bombing and shooting rampage that left 77 people dead last summer in Oslo and at a Labor Party youth camp on Utoya island. History is littered with murderers inspired by art: Charles Manson believed the lyrics to the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" were a prophecy that...

Never thought we'd ever be discussing this topic in the year 2011. The Boston Celtics: potential 2012 NBA champions? For Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, it's Year 5 as a unit. What was once the Big Three, Part 2, is now the Big IV. Then again, Rajon Rondo's emergence as a genuine NBA star is a large part of the reason the Celtics are still being discussed with the NBA's elite. There would be nothing to talk about if the Celtics had a mediocre point guard. Still, Messrs.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The day after the chief investigator said authorities were closing in on a serial highway shooter, a man stood in plain view on an overpass and fired a handgun at the cars below. He then walked to his car and slipped into traffic. Ballistics testing has confirmed that the Saturday morning shooting was the 24th in a series in the Columbus area, investigators said yesterday. No one was injured in that shooting. The bullet recovered from the battery of a sport utility vehicle struck on Interstate 70 matches eight others recovered during the...

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. – Police planned to search for oxycodone, cocaine, and drug paraphernalia at the home of Cullen Mutrie when he allegedly opened fire last week, killing the Greenland, N.H., police chief and wounding four other officers, according to a search warrant and affidavit released by authorities today. The documents show police were also seeking to search Mutrie's girlfriend, Brittany Tibbetts, who they believed was involved in the sale of drugs. The warrant and affidavit had been sealed as a matter of course prior to the search to prevent contraband from being...