Posted on 11/21/2011 10:48:04 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Violence broke out at Occupy Houston's Tranquility Park site Monday evening. A gunman armed with a .40-caliber rifle shot approximately 15 rounds into the air and into the park's fountains before being shot twice by Houston Police officers patrolling the area. He was taken into custody.
Witnesses say the gunman — a twentysomething male in a dark suit with a white shirt — entered the park through a stairwell at Bagby and Rusk. Walking towards the Occupy Houston site, the man fired several rounds towards the sky and started heading towards the fountains.
Several protestors approached nearby police officers, who initially thought the gunman was only armed with a toy. When bullets started splashing in the fountains, police realized the man was using a real weapon and began to circle the shooter.
The gunman walked onto the metal catwalk that crosses the park fountains when an officer on a bike fired several shots, two of which hit the gunman below the waist. There was some speculation among Occupy Houston protestors that Houston Police Department officers were using rubber bullets, but the HPD says its officers fired real ammunition. The HPD also says the shooter was a 21-year-old with a Houston address but provided no further details on his identity.
"The man pointed his gun at a young lady [from the catwalk], she's a regular occupier, but he didn't fire at her," said protestor Benjamin Franklin Rendon, who says that another occupier was trying to calm the gunman at the time as well.
"He started waving the gun around randomly and then turned towards the cops, at which point he was shot twice," Rendon says. According to authorities, the gunman was carried away fully conscious and responsive.
"I don't think he really wanted to hurt anybody," said eyewitness protestor Capital Baker. "He was aiming all over, but nowhere too specific . . . until he pointed it at the girl."
Numerous rumors circulated in the hour after the shooting, putting everyone in the park on edge. Several occupiers heard there were two additional "well-dressed men" on the Rusk side of the park. Another protestor says that the gunman mumbled a phrase about "being a White Knight for Occupy Houston."
The gunman appeared visibly unstable to most eyewitnesses, one of whom noted that he had a "crazy look in his eyes."
“The gunman appeared visibly unstable”
That is an accurate description of almost all the Occupy spoiled children.
One pro-OWS columnist recently wrote that they were waiting for their “Kent State moment.”
Hang around long enough, show you’re a haven for loons, and you’ll get it—of course, it’ll be someone else who gets killed, not those hoping for this kind of thing.
Why would the cops shoot below the hips? Something does not seem right here. I can’t ever recall when someone did this and Police shot only “twice” and below the waste?
Must not have wanted to waste him.
Some one will be along in the MSM to paint him as a Tea
Partier any moment now.
Cops, all over the country, have been given orders to avoid escalating the situation with the protesters.
That’s probably why they didn’t shoot to kill.
Assuming the "catwalk" was above street level, shots under stress hitting "below the belt" seems reasonable to me; and 2 hits out of several ... well, it is what it is.
The real take from this story IMHO is that this occupy crap has to end, its gone way to far.
As I read it he was on a catwalk when shot, so I believe the shots went over the waste.
“shot only “twice” and below the waste?”
Waste? Bwaahahaha
They are definitely a magnet for whackos
You aim low to be sure that the rounds that you miss with hit the ground. If there was a crowd, it is a good technique to avoid killing bystanders.
I used to instruct my guards to aim low, but to keep shooting until the threat was neutralized.
Mr. Blond from Reservoir Dogs, no doubt.
It's kinda funny that well-dressed people stand out so prominently in that crowd.
Glad none of the sartorially challenged were hurt or killed.
Better than creating a situation, where the OWS use it to create an unprecedented destruction of a downtown core on par with a major hurricane.
It seems to me the man with a gun wasn’t acting that random, since he wasn’t aiming at anybody. It would seem he was possibly trying to provoke the police.
I can’t wait for CNN to report that he’s “Palin’s ex husband” and a “Tea Party leader.”
Episode 2: Newt visits the man in the hospital. They argue. Newt tells the man their friendship is over, then storms out. Very insensitive since the man is laying in a hospital bed.
Yep, just like the Tea Party.
Maybe they were trying to “Darwin Award” him.
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