Gunman opens fire in school board meeting (intense video)

And that's why gun control doesn't make sense

 

I used to film school board meetings. Not all of them are held on school grounds. The ones I filmed were held at an annex across town.


In regard to the staff, I'm not surprised by their response. Deer in headlights is a pretty normal response.

The cop guy probably couldn't get a clean shot. You have to consider what's behind your target, and that happened to be the school board (from my guess of where the cop was, off camera right). I would have hoped he could have beat the gunman to a second shot, but i can't tell what's happening.

Especially not at École Polytechnique, or Mayerthorpe, or Vernon.

Just glossing over world politics, you can see arguments on both sides once you consider other countries and also think in a historical perspective. I think Krazie said it best with "lower population, different upbringing".
My alma mater is situated in a small rural town where the population is generally farm workers and ranchers. The school used to have a gunsmithing course on campus, and hauling your rifles between class was common. No stories in the paper, no statues to fallen students. The class is gone and rules have changed, but up until my graduation there was still actively used gun closets in the dorm.

 

In case anyone's interested, here's the full story from the Panama City News Herald:

PANAMA CITY — A gunman held the Bay District School Board hostage Tuesday in a videotaped drama, ultimately opening fire on them before being shot and disabled by Mike Jones, the district’s chief of safety, security and police. After being shot several times, Clay Duke, 56, turned his pistol on himself in front of the stunned group, ending his life with a shot to the head, Panama City Police officials said.

Duke, who apparently described himself as a “Freedom Fighter” on his Facebook page, was pronounced dead a short time later. Jones was not physically hurt in the incident, but was taken to a local hospital for observation Tuesday night.

No one else was shot or injured in the incident, even though Duke fired at Superintendent Bill Husfelt at point-blank range and Jones fired at Duke several times.



Hostages

The standoff began a little after 2 p.m. Tuesday as a routine School Board meeting was winding down. Duke was in the back of the room, where he had been waiting throughout the meeting.

When the discussion turned toward technology, Duke went to the podium, said something in a mumble and then took out a can of red spray-paint. Duke painted a circle on the wall behind him and then a “V” inside the circle. Husfelt said later he originally thought Duke just was not a fan of the district’s computer budget.

Then Duke pulled out his gun, which Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten described as a small-caliber pistol.

“You said a pistol,” Husfelt said to Van Etten during a joint news conference shortly after the shooting. “It looked like a shotgun when it was pointed at me.”

The meeting was being streamed live over the district’s website, and members of the public along with employees who were in the building watched the events unfold before them. Local television reporters were able to turn their cameras on and capture the standoff. News Herald reporter Daniel Carson was also inside for a time and then able to observe what happened while standing just outside the board room.

Click to read Carson's first-person account »

Duke told the people at the meeting they could leave; he only wanted the male board members to stay. School Board member Ginger Littleton left through the back entrance and Duke walked up the dais. Seeing an opening, Littleton turned around, crept up behind Duke and hit him with her purse.

Littleton later said she was trying to stop what she felt was the inevitable conclusion.

“It could have been a real bloodbath,” she said. “Talk about fish in a barrel. There was no place for those guys to go. There was just no way they could have gone anywhere if he had decided to take them out at that point.”

She said the gun seemed as big as a cannon, but she felt she could not leave the other board members behind.

“To me, it was either go for it now or live with the consequences, and I couldn’t live with the consequences,” she said.

Littleton had a big purse that her mother-in-law had given her. It was heavy, she said, but it was not enough. She struck Duke, but he knocked her to the ground.

“You stupid bitch,” he said.

“Quite frankly, at that point, in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘You know, you’re probably right,’ ” Littleton said later.

Then, Duke pointed his gun “directly at my brain,” Littleton said. “And he didn’t choose to do that to me. … I’m sure when I wake up tomorrow I’ll be a sadder but a wiser person.”

Eventually, Littleton left the room uninjured.

After most people had fled for their own safety, one man entered the room — Jones, a retired Panama City police officer who is known locally as Salvage Santa. For nearly 30 years Jones has repaired old bicycles and collected toys to give to needy children at Christmas. Jones’ office is in the building, but he had not been at the meeting.

As he was holding a gun, Duke talked about how his wife had been fired by the school system. But Husfelt and the members of the board told Duke they did not remember his wife or why she had been fired.

“I was trying to get him to explain,” Husfelt said. “I really didn’t know what he was talking about.”

Board member Jerry Register promised Duke that he would get the woman a job. Ultimately, Husfelt tried to bargain with Duke to let the other board members go by pointing out that he was the one who signed the termination papers.

“Let them go. I’m the one that did it,” Husfelt said. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt.”

A witness nearby, who was standing outside during the shooting, said Husfelt also talked about his wife and children. But Duke raised his gun and pointed it at Husfelt.

“Please don’t,” Husfelt said. “Please don’t. Please …”

Then Duke fired several shots directly at Husfelt.

“I thought I was shot,” Husfelt said. “I’m fine until I start thinking about my children, and then I lose it.”

Husfelt said he thought Duke was shooting blanks. However, investigators on the scene said there were no blanks in the gun; it was loaded with live ammo.

Duke was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Jones was not physically injured in the incident, but he also was taken to a local hospital, where he is being kept overnight for observation, officials said.

“Mike Jones is the hero in this,” Husfelt said. “He earned every cent he’s ever made today.”



A circle with a V

This was not the first time Duke fired a gun at someone.

Ben Bollinger represented Duke when he was convicted in 1999 of shooting into a vehicle, aggravated stalking and wearing a bulletproof vest. Duke was sentenced to five years in prison on each count and his sentences were served concurrently. As part of a plea agreement, Duke was required to complete psychological counseling.

Bollinger said Tuesday that Duke was waiting in the woods for his wife with a rifle, wearing a mask and a bulletproof vest. She confronted him and then tried to leave in a vehicle, and Duke shot the tires of the vehicle.

“The guy was like, just out there,” Bollinger said. “He had some bad problems.”

In January 2009, Duke wrote a letter to Circuit Judge Dedee Costello, stating he had come before her in 1999 and 2000, “as a mentally ill man who had committed crimes. … While in prison I was diagnosed as ‘adult-onset bipolar condition’ and given proper therapy. With that therapy and good behavior, I was released from prison after serving 85 percent of my sentence.”

He went on to ask Costello to terminate his probation early.

The symbol Duke painted on the wall of the board meeting room, a circle with a V inside it, was used in writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd’s graphic novel “V for Vendetta,” in the 2006 movie of the same title — and on Duke’s Facebook page. The main characters in the novel are freedom fighters in a dystopian future England.

Duke’s Facebook page, which he apparently created Dec. 7, also includes his photograph and a quote from billionaire Warren Buffett. “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class that’s making war and we’re winning,” Buffett told The New York Times in 2006.

Duke also quotes Percy Bysshe Shelley and states that a quote from “A Few Good Men” is his favorite.

“You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!” the Facebook post says.

On the page, Duke describes himself as a “Freedom Fighter.”

“My testament: Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V) … no … I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rick (sic) Republicans, Rich Democrats … same-same … rich …”



The aftermath

If Duke had pulled out the gun 30 minutes earlier, the board room would have been filled with students, faculty members and other bystanders, several board members said. Board meetings often begin with awards and special recognition to students, but they and their parents usually leave when the meeting turns to regular business.

Littleton said she does not want to return to the board room until a metal detector is installed.

“I don’t think that any of us has been able to come to grips with what has happened. Looking down the barrel of a gun … it is a life-changing experience.”

Husfelt also described it as life-changing for him and his staff.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever gone through anything as surreal as this,” he said. “This was a no-win situation.”

Husfelt said he was not sure what the answer would be as far as security for board meetings, but he did feel something needed to be done.

“We don’t want to make it an armory, but obviously we don’t want to go through that again,” he said.

Despite the emotional trauma, the board will get through this experience, Littleton predicted.

“One minute, one hour at a time, we’ll work through this,” she said.

Husfelt even had kind words for the family of the man who shot at him.

“My heart goes out to his family,” he said. “He had made up his mind that he was going to die today.”



News Herald reporters Chris Olwell, Chris Segal and Daniel Carson contributed to this report.

 

Who?

 

Annex building are generally still considered part of the school campus/property, and subject to the rules and regulations of the school district. Not to mention that almost all school-realted activities (sports, plays, band, field trips, meetings, parent-teacher conferences, etc.) are all subject to the rules and regulations of the school district. You might be leading a field trip to a bread factory for Home-Ec class, but you can't bring a firearm there.

Well said.

 

281-330-8004


that's who

 

Nice!

 

Ah, you are looking at it from the perspective of an employee and rules governed by such. I was getting confused by what you were saying about the actual building. Yeah, if I enter a building as myself it's no problem, but there's a different set of rules I have to abide if it's associated to business work.

 

Don't be such a douche. Honestly, it's people like you who give American's a bad rep. Take your chill pill and sit the fuck down already. You notice how no one is jumping to agree with you?

Wow, and that's what like all of them spanning back to the 80's? Well played.
Last I checked this shit happens on a monthly basis down past the 49th. I'm not saying you guys suck, I'm saying you have a larger population, with more unsecured arms, in a country waging an active war, with massive debt. Of course you'll have more pissed off people acting like nutbars running around. Does it make you a worse country for it? No. Does it make Canada a safer place to be by comparison? Fuck yes. Don't even try to argue that. You'll fail.

 

Mike Jones!

 

Me being a douche? It was the ignorant Canadian who started this. He sees one idiot American and decides to use that to disprove my American right, which he has no business in. That's being a douche. I really don't care if anyone agrees with me. I can stand my own in an argument.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsLX8F1LNvU

this is actually a much better video. it starts way sooner and shows things leading up to it all

wow this is just so wild.

and im not trying to speak for anyone else but yeah in my opinion i would have really wanted my glock on me when that sorta thing started goin down

 

I was politely poking holes as you (Krazie) and MX are both being extremists.

I did not attempt to span any sort of time, I just made the point that it DOES happen in Canada. The specific dates were '89, 2005, and 2006, and I found the answers in 5 minutes. MX found more instances, and all recent enough to be seen on one day.

Seen from that perspective, yes, when you mash multiple situations together. Pardon me if I am misinterpreting, but it seems that you were making the overarching reason behind this is the different stances on gun rights, which as I mentioned, and even agreed with you (why can't people on TW take a compliment?), is the way we treat the topic. Europe has a more relaxed outlook on age restriction for alcohol consumption, yet it's mostly a non-issue due to upbringing, where here we act like children.

There's places in London that you don't want to be at night, and I believe their gun policies are stricter than either of us.

 

Gotta agree here.

I'm glad I'm in a country where I can carry a concealed firearm legally. That's what makes this country great, you are not under government control compared to other countries in this world. I believe if you are responsible and are qualified to carry, then be my guest. If someone wants to kill or hurt somebody, they will do it regardless what the tool being used is. I could care less if that guy went in the board meeting with a knife; he is still a crazy bastard and action needs to be taken against him. Bottom line, a gun is an inanimate object. A gun does not kill, but rather the person using the gun.

 

I would like to post this, to stop this stupid Canada vs. US argument that has blown up for what, in my opinion is a very stupid reason, stemmed from blatant ignorance.

Highest crime rates per capita, by country.

US, ranked #8
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/us-united-states/cri-crime
Out of 11,877,218 crimes;
1.2% were assaults
16,204 murders (0.136%), 9,369 murders with firearms (0.0788%).


Canada, ranked #12
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/ca-canada/cri-crime

Of 2,516,918 crimes;
2.3% were assaults.
523 murders (0.0207%), 144 murders with firearms (0.0057%) .

In conclusion, though the occurance rate of assaults, per capita in Canada is nearly double that of the US... The occurance rates of murders in the US, per capita, is 6.57 times that of Canada. The occurance rates of murders with firearms in the US, per capita, is 13.82 times that of Canada.



I think this settles the debate about firearm violence being more prevalent in the United States.... and, keep in mind.. the numbers aren't exactly accurate for "Firearm violence" because these are murders, and not counting drive-by shootings, and people that don't know how to shoot, like the shooter in this video.

 

lolol. I read somewhere that only 1/3 of Canada's murders are with guns. . . lol. axes and hammers it is.