Two die in separate Occupy shootings

A man was shot and killed Thursday just outside the Oakland encampment that anti-Wall Street protesters have occupied for the past month, but organizers said the attack was unrelated to their ongoing protest of U.S. financial institutions.

Police Chief Howard Jordan said a preliminary investigation suggests the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the Occupy Oakland camp on a plaza in front of City Hall. During the altercation, one of the men pulled out a gun and fired several rounds into a crowd on the plaza’s edge, with one bullet striking the victim, Jordan said.

Elsewhere on Thursday, police say preliminary investigations show a 35-year-old military veteran fatally shot himself in the head at an Occupy Wall Street encampment in Burlington, Vt.