Posted on 05/31/2019 4:13:20 PM PDT by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
Eleven victims died, and six more people are injured, in a horrific mass shooting that broke out at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center, building 2, near the courthouse, Virginia Beach police have confirmed.
“This is the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said. “The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbors, colleagues.” Police Chief James A. Cervera confirmed the casualty count and called it a “devastating incident that happened…that is going to change the lives of a number of families from our city.” A police officer was shot but was “saved by his vest,” said the chief.
The suspect, who was not named, is dead. He was a current public utilities worker, said the chief. Police have not yet released the names or conditions of the surviving victims. This article will be updated as that information is known, including with tributes to each victim. You can listen to an archive of the earliest scanner audio from the scene later in this article.
Shortly after 4 p.m., the suspect, a long-time city employee, entered the municipal center and began to “indiscriminately fire on all the victims,” the chief said in the first news conference on the situation. Although earlier reports said the suspect had been fired, the chief said he was a “current employee” and added that the shooting occurred over multiple floors.
Officers responded to building 2. They secured as many of the victims as they could. “The suspect did shoot a police officer. Officers returned fire. Suspect is deceased. The scene is secure,” said the chief.
NBC 12 reported that there were “mounting numbers of people injured.” People stepped over wounded coworkers and hid for their lives, according to the station. It’s believed there was a single shooter.
Witnesses reported a frightening scene. By one account, as shots were being fired in a public utilities area, a supervisor came in and told employees “this isn’t a drill,” so workers ran and hid in a room, hearing muffled shots echoing outside, NBC 12 reported.
However, it was clear that there was a very dangerous situation at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center. “The basement has been cleared,” authorities said around 5:23 p.m. on the scanner, indicating they were still going from room-to-room inside the municipal building. [snip]
Local news reports indicated the courthouse was locked down. Scanner traffic painted a frightening scene from the dispatches of responding law enforcement officers. They referred to possible casualties, a barricaded suspect, and people hiding inside. They reiterated that the mass shooting occurred at building 2. [snip]
David Hogg will be getting on his bicycle to haul ass down I-95 from Harvard to Va Beach in 3....2...1...
Condolences to the families and friends of the deceased and prayers for the six or are wounded.
amen
When will a Judge Ban Gun Sales?
So no one could conceal carry because it was government. ..right???
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...WE DIDN'T LOVE FREEDOM ENOUGH. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
CAPS mine
RIP.
I hate to sound callous but maybe this employee did not like cleaning up the beaches after Memorial day.
Avoid the courthouse at all cost!
part makes me nervous
Bastard picked a “gun-free” criminal protection zone.
This is from VOX: ((as of 9:42 pm. EST))
What we don’t know
The identity of the suspect;
The motivation of the shooter;
The final number of fatalities, or the identities of the victims.
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This is typical.
Condolences to the families of the people killed.
Today is a FRIDAY during RAMADAN!
You gotta go postal when you have a bad day. The point is laws are only as good as the people obeying them.
They’re useless against bad guys out for blood. That’s when only packing heat can stop them.
You can’t reason with a mass murderer. Not that liberals will learn from what happened in Virginia Beach.
RE: Ramadan....
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Sad how holidays are different.
Our Christmas,Easter,Thanksgiving,Chanukah,Passover and others in the Judeo Christian faiths involve extra charity,gifts to loved ones,meals set up for the hungry,donation boxes for toys and clothing,festive meals with loved ones and a renewed feeling of closeness.
Ramadan and various anniversary dates of mass killings in past eras result in increased security needs at churches and synagogues as well as airports and malls. Often they result in killings with the Muslim god’s name shouted.
Quite a contrast.
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