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EDIT - Current figure now stands at 32 students shot dead at Virginia Tech College, Blackburn, USA.
All Police have confirmed is there was a heavily armed, ammunition carrying Asian man - who was killed. However, they're looking for a possible accomplice.
Apparently it's the worst occurence of this type of shooting since the six students were shot at the Kent State University for their Anti-Vietnam protest, back at the start of the 70s.
Story Here
HOUSTON (Reuters) - An armed space engineer killed a co-worker he had taken hostage, then himself, in an attack on Friday at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Another hostage, a female co-worker, was found bound with duct tape, but unharmed, police said.
"Apparently there was some type of dispute between the suspect and the victim," Houston police chief Harold Hurtt said.
The incident occurred amid rising concerns about U.S. gun violence following the Monday attack at Virginia Tech university in which a student killed 32 people in the worst shooting rampage in modern U.S. history.
"As a result of the Virginia Tech shootings, we had reviewed our own (security) procedures here at the Johnson Space Center," center director Michael Coats told reporters.
"Of course, we never believed this could happen," he said.
Coats identified the shooter as Bill Phillips, who had worked at JSC for 12 years but was a contract worker employed by Pasadena, California-based Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
"Up until recently, he's been a good employee," he said.
The dead co-worker was David Beverly, an engineer employed by NASA, Coats said. Both men were said to be in their 50s.
The incident began about 1:40 p.m. (1840 GMT) when, in the building where they worked, Phillips pulled out a gun and was heard firing at least two shots, police said.
Fran Crenshaw was taken hostage apparently only because she was nearby, Hurtt said. She was bound, but managed to get tape off her mouth and call NASA's emergency number, he said.
BUILDING EVACUATED
Workers in the building, which houses communications equipment, were quickly evacuated and heavily armed police moved in.
As they drew closer, they heard a shot and went in to find the gunman and his male hostage dead, said police spokesman Dwayne Ready.
"As our SWAT members made entry, they did indeed determine that the suspect shot himself one time to the head," Ready said.
"Also, on the same floor there was one other hostage that was shot. We believe that may have occurred in the early minutes of this whole ordeal."
Ready said police had tried to communicate with the gunman, but got no response.
On a table, he had left a list of names and numbers of people to be notified about his death, Hurtt said.
Police said Phillips used a snub-nosed revolver he had bought on March 19 at a local gun shop.
Building 44, where the shooting took place, is slightly separated from most of the space center -- a sprawling 1,600-acre (650-hectare) campus that is home to NASA's Mission Control and the center of training for the space agency's astronaut corps.
NASA officials said the incident did not affect operations, which include flight control for the International Space Station.
In February, in another unusual event for NASA, astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested in Florida on charges she assaulted a romantic rival. Nowak, who was based at JSC, was later fired from NASA and is awaiting trial in September.
Phillips, who had no family, lived near the space center in a one-story brick house, where the windows were shuttered and police peering inside said there was little furniture.
Neighbours described Phillips as friendly, but reserved.
"He was pretty much a loner. He was friendly, he'd wave at you, but I never saw anybody with him," said Kevin Rizer.
Goose > Rocket Scientist
linky
This is just stupid...
> I think he meant young people going on killing sprees, worse
> things happen statistically, but the closest thing you really
> have to these killing sprees are suicide bombers, and they,
> seemingly, have completely different reasons for doing so
Really. Like what pray tell..? It's terroristic killing no matter what angle you choose to look at it and it does not only happen in America.
> pb wrote:
> Only in America, it seems.
>
> Why does this sort of thing happen in the US and not anywhere
> else?
>
>
> I must say, that is the most ignorant thing I've read thusfar on
> here. Okay, so I've only read three threads so far..
>
> A lot of miserably horrific things happen in the world much
> worse and more often, but you don't hear of them like this
> because in those countries there aren't broadcast
> services like there are in modern countries. Imagine what we'd
> be faced with if all the killing in African, Latin American, and
> Asian countries were accounted for and aired this way?
*sigh*
In many countries there are muggings, hostage taking and lots of unpleasant things, but school shootings by pupils are not common in any other country, I feel I am justified in making that statement. The question was, why is this type of violence so prominent in the USA, more so than any other country?
In my opinion, opposed to stereotyping an entire nation, we should look closer to the larger issue..by and large, that being the psychology of the individuals going on these shooting sprees in our schools. Many people want to believe our laws are not working, but there are less crimes in countries with less restrictive laws. For the most part, murder-suicide occurs in every country, as does terroristic killing unfortunately. It leads one to ask, what is the general psychological analysis of individuals attempting suicide? The fact that these incidents are occuring at all in our schools here in the US, is most-likely because of the media attention it receives.
I think you need to look at the cases on the basis of what they are, rather than looking at all murder-suicides as a whole. If you take Britain, it has a lot more muggings and plenty of teenage gang shootings, but very few school shootings. It also has more sword related crimes than some other countries. This is possibly due to swords being far more available than guns, but I think kids at British schools/colleges seem far less pressured to ‘belong’ or find ‘meaning’. This is only my limited understanding of the school situation in the US, though, from what I’ve read or heard from people.
In the same respect, the US has more school related shootings than other countries. While I believe that the 'freedom' to bear arms is part of the cause of this (as a general gun culture) and the media does play some part as well, I think it's more to do with the pressure on the youth today and in this last case, it sounds suspiciously like the after effects of cannabis was involved.
Different pressures and impacts from different countries create different types of crime. I don’t believe you can cover this as any sort of Terrorism, though, it’s psychological issues that drive most of these school related shootings. This is why I originally asked what could cause these to be a far greater occurrence in one particular country.
In Spain, for instance, there are less pressures on youths at school, families are close and morals are built in to the society, so you get far less general violent crime, teenage pregnancies and family splits, but there is also a belief that people should be ‘passionate’ about things, so you get far more crimes of passion than you would somewhere else. They also express respect for law and order whilst complying with very little unless it suits them.