Breaking News : Gunman at Johnson Space Center Kills Hostage, Then Himself
Here is the story, but look at this text messaging from a 13 year old…..Ted also had a bad day because his daughter was traumatized today….
Roads within the 1,600-acre campus were blocked off. A nearby middle school also kept its teachers and students inside as the school day ended, but reopened to allow students to leave.
Text messages from a student in the middle school, received by a FOX 26 News employee, read:
2:41 PM CST
“MOM I HAVE A BIG STORY FOR YOU FOR FOX”
2:48 PM CST
“WE ARE IN LOCK-DOWN. CAN’T TALK”
2:53 PM CST
“THEY SAY THAT THERE IS A GUNMAN AT JOHNSON SPACE CENTER. BUILDING 44, AND THE DOOR KEEPS GETTING PUSHED AND HANDLE IS GETTING JIGGLED. THE HANDLE TO THE DOOR IN THE PORTABLES [CLASSROOM].”
3:05 PM CST
“[WE] ARE IN THE PORTABLES CLOSEST TO THE SPACE CENTER BUILDING.”
3:06 PM CST
“…THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE REALLY FREAKING OUT.”
3:14 PM CST
“THEY ARE SAYING STUFF LIKE OMG, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE. GOING INTO HISTERICS AND CRYING A WHOLE LOT AND SWEARING A WHOLE BUNCH.”
3:18 PM CST
“OKAY. THEY GAVE US THE ALL-CLEAR.”
3:34 PM CST
“THEY HAVE PUT OFF ALL AFTER-SCHOOL ACTIVITIES.”
Another NASA spokesman, James Hartsfield, said the building was “one of the smaller” office buildings on the JSC campus, where Mission Control is based.
He declined to speculate on how a person would get a gun inside NASA security or what his motives would be.
Doors to Mission Control were locked as is standard procedure, said Christine Reichert, space station flight controller.
NASA Director of External Relations Eileen Hawley said NASA would study the situation when it was defused to see if any policies needed to be changed.
April 20, 2007 - 05:04 PM on April 20th, 2007
I wouldn’t say she was traumatized, but the letter said a kid drew a picture of a gun and under it was wrote “Soon, I’ll do it too.”. It weas at the high school, which is adjacent to the middle school.
With this week seeming to be some sort of colosal cosmic meeting point of all things tragic (Columbine, VaTech, NASA, Hitler’s Birthday and a few other things I can’t remeber at this time). The swchool was locked down and the Sheriff was called out.
I just have to sit here and think that the fact that NBC made the ratings decision to air Cho’s Manifesto went a long way towards encouraging that behaviour,
April 20, 2007 - 05:31 PM on April 20th, 2007
1- Well when I was in school, way back when, we had a few bomb threats made by really dumb kids with nothing more productive to do with their time and they thought it was funny….Not cool to go to central booking though…When going through it, it does make your heart skip a beat and it is scary..I am glad that all is well with your daughter…
NBC~ I just am appalled…all over the country this week…people think they will get famous by doing copycat crimes..
April 21, 2007 - 08:39 AM on April 21st, 2007
NBC, the company that should be wholly owned by GM, is still making bad, not poor, but bad decisions.
NBC should just go all game shows and soap operas.
April 21, 2007 - 09:19 AM on April 21st, 2007
NBC should be sued for the costs by LE all over the nation for the hundreds or thousands of incidents all over the nation of wackos making threats, encouraged by Cho’s notoriety. We had one locally here and my 6 year olds school shut down for the day.
NBC or anyone else wants to do something irresponsible wants to do for ratings, hey it’s free speech, but the cost of the consequences should be the cost of doing business.
The decision by NBC to air those tapes is one of those amoral corporate decisions referred to in another thread.
April 21, 2007 - 09:31 PM on April 21st, 2007
Don’t forget that this week also marks the Janet Reno decision to burn down the Branch Davidian complex with the Branch Davidians still in it. And of course Timothy McVey’s domestic terrorist attack against the Murra Building as retaliation for the Waco debacle.
A friend and I looked at what happened with Koresh and decided that the people who went after him were utter idiots. If you have someone that you want to arrest who jogs religiously every morning, why raid a house full of armed people who may not want to give him up when you can simply snatch him off the roadside with a stun gun and a pair of handcuffs? If you wanted to search the house after arresting Koresh, you’d simply have to walk up to the house and knock on the door. Until the ATF agents assaulted the house and fired on the dogs inside, noone inside had put up any resistance. I don’t care who you are, you come busting into my house and firing on my dog, I’m likely to throw a few rounds back at you myself.
That’s the same thing that happened at Ruby Ridge. The two US Marshals snuck onto the Weaver property and when Randy Weaver’s 14 yr old son and a family friend took the dog for a walk, the Marshals fired on the dog. A firefight erupted that left the dog, a US Marshal, and a 14 yr old dead. The family friend and Randy Weaver were BOTH charged with murder in the death of the US Marshal and BOTH were acquitted since there was more than enough evidence that the Marshal’s fired first. While the US Government admitted to no wrongdoing in the deaths of Vicki Weaver (shot by an FBI “sniper” while holding her infant daughter) or her 14 yr old son, they did settle out of court with Randy Weaver for millions of dollars.
April 22, 2007 - 07:14 AM on April 22nd, 2007
FAO- You brought it up, so I’ll talk about it…I didn’t post on DK and his Branch because I was so upset about the NBC glorification of Cho…
How could our domestic police force screw up so badly, not just once, but twice..well actually 3 times if you add Elian Gonzales? Was it really just Reno, or are we in that much trouble with the agencies we have?
April 22, 2007 - 11:10 AM on April 22nd, 2007
A friend and I looked at what happened with Koresh and decided that the people who went after him were utter idiots. If you have someone that you want to arrest who jogs religiously every morning, why raid a house full of armed people who may not want to give him up when you can simply snatch him off the roadside with a stun gun and a pair of handcuffs?
Exactly right. From beginning to end the Waco incident, regardless of how anyone feels about Koresh, was a major-league CF. It was mishandled so badly at every turn that everyone in the chain of command, from the on-scene managers to Janet Sterno, should have been fired.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they were promoted. It is true within Law Enforcement, as in every Gov’t bureaucracy, that people tend to be promoted to their highest level of incompetence. That’s why years after Columbine we still have local LE looking like the Keystone cops every time one of these school shootings occurs.
April 25, 2007 - 10:49 PM on April 25th, 2007
My brother-in-law and father-in-law were there at the Johnson Space Center for an awards ceremony that day, at that hour. They literaly just left the site when cop cars came came with lights a flashin’.
My Brother-I.L. works on the space shuttles main engines.
“close” call. (!)
April 27, 2007 - 08:34 PM on April 27th, 2007
The Israelis were having problems with terrorists attacking schools because kids make such easy targets. The Israelis decided that police took too long to arrive and wouldn’t know who belonged in the schools and who didn’t so that was an unacceptable solution. They opted to instead allow teachers who were willing to take tactical handgun training to carry concealed handguns in the classroom. Not every teacher opted for it, but even though only a minority did, it meant that at least a few armed and trained individuals were immediately on site at any school attack before the death toll could reach very high. It took about 3 terrorist attacks ending with the terrorists being killed before being able to massacre a bunch of kids before the terrorist attacks stopped.
April 27, 2007 - 09:43 PM on April 27th, 2007
Common sense and logic prove out every time, don’t they? Irrational emotional idiocy doesn’t.