Followup from yesterday. Edited to help the incompetent reporter who wrote the story.
HOUSTON (AP) - A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries. NASA and police identified him as 60-year-old William Phillips. He had apparently had a dispute with the slain hostage, police said.
NASA identified the slain hostage as David Beverly, a civil servant who worked at the agency. Beverly, who was shot in the chest, was probably killed "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal," police said. A second hostage, identified by NASA as Fran Crenshaw, escaped after being bound to a chair with duct tape, police Capt. Dwayne Ready said. That can be harder to do than you might think!
The gunman was able to take a snub-nosed revolver past NASA security and barricade himself in the building, which houses communications and tracking systems for the space shuttle, authorities said. NASA spokesman Doug Peterson said the agency would review its security. You mean "security", right?
"Any organization would take a good, hard look at the kind of review process we have with people," Peterson said.
To enter the space center, workers flash an ID badge as they drive past a security guard. The badge allows workers access to designated buildings.
The gunman, an employee of Jacobs Engineering of Pasadena, Calif., shot himself once in the head more than three hours after the standoff began, police said. Should have shot himself in the head twice to make sure he was dead, but I guess he got lucky and one was enough. In any case, thanks for sparing us the expense and drama of a trial.
Initial reports indicated two shots were fired about 1:40 p.m. and another shot was heard about 5 p.m.
John Prosser, executive vice president of Jacobs Engineering, confirmed that the gunman was a company employee but declined to release any information about him. Mike Coats, the director of the Johnson Space Center, said Phillips had worked for NASA for 12 to 13 years and "up until recently, he has been a good employee."
"He was a quiet man."
Police Chief Harold Hurtt said there was apparently a dispute between Phillips and Beverly, but didn't elaborate. Won't name the third because she's still alive, eh?
During the confrontation, NASA employees in the building were evacuated and others were ordered to remain in their offices for several hours. Roads within the 1,600-acre space center campus were also blocked off, and a nearby middle school kept its teachers and students inside as classes ended. Doors to Mission Control were locked as standard procedure.
#1
Okay. Show of hands.
How many thought it was me?
Posted by: Ex Astronaut Lisa Nowak ||
04/21/2007 11:55 Comments ||
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#2
Two shots fired?
Two people Killed?
This was NOT a "shooting", this was a planned murder.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2007 13:12 Comments ||
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#3
So, David Beverly emails a crappy job performance review to Bill Phillips, Phillips prints it out a day later, in March, and then buys a gun. My guess is old Bill just wanted to discuss the finer points of being called a quiet loner with no job skills, and things got out of hand.
#4
What sucks is that it was a government facility. Meaning no firearms allowed for personnel in there. Only those old fatass Fed Protective service types.
A grandmother of five was flying her small plane cross-country when the engine quit in mid-air and she was forced to make an emergency landing in a muddy field.
Emma Hanner, 78, was flying her two-seater plane home to Denver from Lexington, N.C., when the propeller stopped suddenly west of St. Louis.
"It just quit," said Hanner. "When the propeller on the front of the plane goes around, it keeps the pilot cool. But when it stops, that's when the pilot starts to sweat."
Class. Pure, undiluted CLASS...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/21/2007 16:22 ||
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#2
Almost posted this one myself. This dame's 78 and has more gumption than a committee full of our politicians combined. Her only injury was a small cut to the upper lip.
#4
Martha Stewart?! When I worked in the OR we talked about much more fun stuff like skiing or where we went hiking, depending on the season, heh.
Yes, thank God these cases are rare.
Posted by: Jan ||
04/21/2007 22:41 Comments ||
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#5
Those who have been unfortunate enough to be awake during surgery describe it as akin to being buried alive. Patients are haunted by nightmares, suffer panic attacks and experience intense flashbacks.
You'd think that still being alive would help overcome any negative after-effects. Dieing from your tumor is far more traumatic.
I saw them cut the optic nerve, Ms. Weihrer said in a telephone interview in Reston, Va. And I heard the surgeon say You have to really pull hard to get the eye out.'
It's all fun and games until someone gets their eye put out ...
An internal state police panel of accident experts will decide if Governor Corzine's driver was at fault in last week's crash, and only the state police superintendent will say if he will face disciplinary action. That has some experts wondering if the state police should be the only ones reviewing an accident where their driver was speeding and the governor not wearing his seat belt. In some cases, courts have approved outside monitors to review police actions to ensure public accountability, experts noted.
Robert Galantucci, a Hackensack-based defense attorney who specializes in representing police officers, said the internal panel is a reasonable beginning. "Every police department has an internal affairs department and, frankly, investigates their own," Galantucci said. "It's certainly a start. Should it be the final review? Probably not." Resolving the matter with only a review by the trooper's colleagues would be "tough for the public to accept," Galantucci said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I was jus' doin' whut my boss tol' me to. Didn't work so well at Nuremburg either...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/21/2007 1:19 Comments ||
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#2
Only if the driver's penalties are met or exceeded by those imposed upon Crash Corzine.
(Hat tip to RD)
#3
Sure the officer was driving, bit his boss was screaming "Faster Pussy Cat Die Die!!"
Posted by: regular joe ||
04/21/2007 7:32 Comments ||
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#4
He's a Trooper, He had the lights flashing, there's no such thing as a speed limit then.
Pat on th wrist, reassignment, new driver, all over.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/21/2007 13:15 Comments ||
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#5
Jim, there may not be such a thing as a formal speed limit for an 'emergency' vehicle with flashing lights, but as I recall, here in Illinois they do have limits. For example, an ambulance with flashing lights still isn't allowed to exceed the speed limit (they can go through red lights if it's safe, etc).
This wasn't a hot pursuit, and I suspect there are internal rules for the state police about driving state officials.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/21/2007 13:52 Comments ||
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#6
With respect to driving the governor, the police's internal rules are probably along the line of "do what he says as long as it doesn't make us look bad."
And you thought *your* last vacation turned out badly...
A Turkish court has fined three French vacationers for the killing of a sailboat skipper who they said threatened to blow up the boat they were in, their lawyer said Thursday.
David Bassard, his mother Marylene and his wife Sylvie appeared in court Wednesday in the Mediterranean city of Fethiye for the killing of Friad Hichan on August 22, said Taner Aktop. They had argued that the killing was self-defence.
The court issued prison sentences of 13 months plus 10 days for the three, but commuted the sentences to fines of 8,100 Turkish lira (4,400 euros, 6,000 dollars) each, Aktop said.
Hichan was a Moroccan sailor hired by the family to pilot their boat. An altercation occurred on the trip off the coast of Turkey, resulting in the strangulation of Hichan and serious injuries to Bassard's father, who was stabbed. The family said the argument began between Bassard's father, Max, and Hichan over a missing dinghy.
According to the lawyer, the argument led to Hicham stabbing Max Bassard. Hicham then poured gas on the deck and threatened to light it, Aktop said. The family responded by tying him up by the legs, arms and throat, the lawyer said.
The court accepted the family's self-defense argument, but ruled that they had used too much force in response, Aktop said. The family plans to appeal.
Dozens of Christian families from the Bethlehem area are about to discover that their homes and lands have been "sold" to Muslims without their knowledge, Palestinian Authority security officials said Thursday.
The officials told The Jerusalem Post that members of a local Muslim gang have been arrested on suspicion of stealing land and property registration documents from the Bethlehem Magistrate's Court. Bethlehem Governor Salah Ta'mari confirmed that an investigation was under way to determine who was behind the theft. He said most of the stolen documents belonged to families living abroad. A Christian businessman told the Post that most of the victims were Christian families living in the US and Latin America. "They are stealing our homes almost every day," he said. "We believe the suspects have been receiving help from some Palestinian security officers here."
The scam was uncovered when court officials complained that many files relating to cases involving ownership of property had disappeared, a security official said. Initially, police thought thieves had broken into the court and stolen the files, he added. However, further investigation revealed that the theft was an inside job. Three court employees and five land dealers were later arrested in connection with the case. The official refused to reveal the land brokers' identities, but sources in the city said some of them were not real land dealers. "These are people with close ties to the Palestinian security forces," the sources said. "We have written to the Palestinian Authority demanding a full inquiry. This is one of the biggest scandals in Bethlehem and many families are very worried that they may lose their property. The phenomenon of forging land registration documents has existed in Bethlehem for nearly 15 years," Ta'mari said. "We have resisted attempts to hinder the investigation and we are determined to fully pursue our efforts."
Ta'mari said one common method of land theft was as follows: Someone forges ownership of a piece of land and registers it under his name. Then an accomplice pretends he has illegally seized the land. The first person sues the accomplice, using the forged documents. The court then rules in favor of the first person, turning him into the "legal" owner. The proceedings take place without the knowledge of the real owner, who usually lives abroad.
This is the first time the PA has acted against land thieves in Bethlehem. The arrests have aroused hope within the local Christian minority that the investigation will lead to the restoration of their land. In January, it was first reported in the Post that Muslim gangsters, including a number of top PA security officers, had illegally seized Christian-owned property in Bethlehem and its surroundings. In an interview with the Post, an elderly Christian couple, Fuad and Georgette Lama, complained that the gang had laid its hands on their six-dunam, or 1.5 acre, plot in the Karkafa suburb south of Bethlehem. "A lawyer and an official with the Palestinian Authority just came and took our land," said 69-year-old Georgette.
Senior PA security officers subsequently offered to help them kick out the intruders. "We paid them $1,000 so they could help us regain our land," she said. "Instead of giving us back our land, they simply decided to keep it for themselves. They even destroyed all the olive trees and divided the land into small plots, apparently so that they could offer each for sale."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/21/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
WTF Muslims have in terms of any claims regarding Bethelehem is a mystery for all time. Kill each and every fuckwit who files a complaint. Palestinian treatment of the Church of the Nativity proved for once and all what to expect from non-Christian and non-Jewish occupiers.
What is it with the Palestinians and their hatred of green, growing things? It's like they realize they're incapable of growing things, and despise the Christians and Jews for having the ability.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
04/21/2007 10:06 Comments ||
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#4
I think you're on to something Rob, maybe even the center of the biscuit.
#5
What is it with the Palestinians and their hatred of green, growing things?
Considering how they can cheerfully send off their own children to kill themselves in an act of hatred, a distaste for any reminder of life and its dazzling fecundity is pretty much a given.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An internal state police panel of accident experts will decide if Governor Corzine's driver was at fault in last week's crash, and only the state police superintendent will say if he will face disciplinary action. That has some experts wondering if the state police should be the only ones reviewing an accident where their driver was speeding and the governor not wearing his seat belt. In some cases, courts have approved outside monitors to review police actions to ensure public accountability, experts noted.
