Year in Review: 13 Biggest News Stories of 2015

From start to finish, many of this year’s biggest news stories were centered around violence, terror threats or a general sense of fear.

The year began with a targeted terror strike in Paris and closed out with another planned attack in California, proving that threats around the globe remain an issue for all.

Domestically, mass shootings caused heartbreak and continuing the debate between those calling for stricter gun control and others arguing for the right to bear arms.

Here is a list of some of the biggest news stories of 2015.

1. Charlie Hebdo Attack in Paris

Terror struck in Paris one week into the New Year when a group of men with extensive ties to terrorist organizations targeted the offices of a famed satirical newspaper. Two men shot their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo while a third waited near the getaway car. The shooters forced their way into the publication’s offices, killing a maintenance man and police bodyguard assigned to protect the editor after he received death threats. Once arriving at the office, they proceeded to kill nine others, mostly editorial staff gathered for their weekly meeting, injuring an additional 11. A faction of al Qaeda claimed responsibility.

The attacks continued in France for two more days, taking the lives of six others, including two police officers and four people held hostage at a kosher grocery store in Paris. The three perpetrators also died.

2. Germanwings Plane Crash

A major aviation mystery in 2015 differed from the series of crashes the previous year in that the plane’s recording device led investigators to a suspect shortly after the deadly crash: the co-pilot. The recording from inside the cockpit of Germanwings Flight 9525 during the March 24 flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf indicated that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the lead pilot out of the cockpit during a break and proceeded to direct the plane toward the mountains of the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board.

“The intention was to destroy the plane,” Brice Robin, the public prosecutor of Marseille, said during the investigation.

3. Deaths by Police Officers

The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin led to the creation of #BlackLivesMatter in 2013, and the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner among others by police officers in Missouri and New York, respectively, carried the outrage through 2014. It was the deaths of Walter Scott and Freddie Gray, both at the hands of police officers, that fueled the outcry in 2015. Scott was fatally shot by a police officer following a traffic stop in South Carolina on April 4. Footage of the incident was recorded by a bystander that appeared to show Scott, who was unarmed, running away from the officer, identified later as Michael Slager. Slager was arrested three days after Scott’s death and charged with murder. His attorney says that Slager insists he is not guilty.

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Source: Meghan Keneally, http://abcnews.go.com