A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building
Friday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and fatally shot a
hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage
escaped with minor injuries.
"The suspect shot himself one time to the head. He appears to be
deceased at this time," Houston police captain Dwayne Ready said at
a press conference.
"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. And another hostage that was unharmed (was
found) taped, but unharmed and being looked at by our paramedics,"
he said.
The slain hostage, who was shot in the chest, was probably
killed "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal," Ready said.
The gunman was believed to be an employee of Jacobs Engineering,
which had a technical support with NASA. "We believe it is one of
our employees," said John Prosser, NASA's executive vice
president.
Roads within the 1,600-acre campus were blocked off during the
confrontation between the gunman and the police.
The unnamed gunman was initially barricaded on the second floor
of the building 44 of the space center and police said they heard
two shots inside the building. The motive of the gunman was still
unknown.
Police had surrounded the building and all employees inside the
building were already evacuated.
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The incident followed the deadly shooting spree at Virginia Tech on
Monday that left 33 people dead and bomb threats over the past few
days that forced the closure of many schools.
On Monday, Cho Seung-Hui, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in
English, shot to death 32 teachers and students at the state
university, which is located in Blacksburg, in the southwest of
Virginia.
He killed himself after the shooting rampage, the deadliest in
US history.
On Wednesday, several buildings of the University of Minnesota
in Minneapolis, Minnesota were evacuated because of a bomb
threat.
All classes in those buildings for the day were canceled, and
students were told to return to their residence halls.
Similar threats forced universities and middle and high schools
to close down in at least 10 states on Tuesday.
And on Friday, a high school in Los Angeles, California, was
ordered kept closed due to what police called "a threat of
violence."
(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2007)
