Posted on 02/22/2014 3:26:02 PM PST by marktwain
On Monday, 17 February, a soldier in an unfinished development in Harris County near Houston was confronted by a swat team, an armored vehicle, and accusations of criminal mischief, because he was practicing with an air rifle.
KHOU.com reports that an off-duty homeland security agent was looking at one of the unfinished houses (that had been damaged by vandals). The agent is said to claim that one of the windows was shattered. The agent then looked out, saw a man with a rifle, and called dispatch. That became an "active shooter event".
An off-duty Homeland Security agent and potential buyer -- just happened to be inside that house when the glass shattered right next to him.
He looked out and saw the soldier holding what he thought was a telescopically high-powered rifle so he called the sheriff.
"An "active shooter" call dropped," said Captain Jay Coons with the Harris County Sheriffs Office.
Kinda crazy! It all blew up over an air rifle. It was real intense, the 25-year-old man said.It is not clear what is being implied by the above paragraph. How would Hooks know exactly when the call for help was made? Perhaps the agents are trying to imply that if the agent saw Hooks unarmed, he would not have made the call to dispatch? I do not see how they have a clear time-line on when the men spoke and when the call from the agent was made.
Hooks said he had been target practicing at the house next door to his home when his dog got out and he went to look for her. Hooks said he even bumped into the Homeland Security Agent who was house shopping in the neighborhood. He was calm. I said, Had you seen my dog? He said. Yes, she ran around the back way, Hooks said.
Shortly afterward, the federal agent called for help, saying shots had just been fired into a house he was walking through. Deputies confronted Hooks and then retrieved the air rifle and pellets Hooks left on his front porch. They said theres no evidence the men spoke before that call for help.
Hooks, a US Army specialist who served in Iraq, said he wasnt aiming at the house where the federal agent had been. He said the target next to that house was an old one. If I felt it ricocheted over here I wouldve said so, he said.KHOU shows some of the broken windows on the house in question. Most of the windows appear to be broken by vandalism. Only two show a hole that might have been caused by small projectiles, and they do not look much like holes in glass that I have seen caused by small, fast, projectiles. Here is one of the images in question:
I have a couple dozen air rifles.
A lot would depend on caliber and power. It sounds like he was using pellets instead of BBs.
Typically they put a tiny hole in glass but I could see some making holes similar to those shown. If I had to guess tho it would be something larger made them and like they suggested, a slingshot would be a prime suspect.
I remember a group at a retreat had a kid who broke 200 windows in one night. Some were totally shattered but most had just the tiny hole of the BB.
I think the most likely result would be a cracked window without a hole at all.
Haven’t seen much glass shattered by air rifle pellets but have seen many windows vandalized by kids throwing stones or using slingshots. That’s what the damage appears to be.
Is “Homeland Security” becoming populated by SOF wantabe pussies? Jeesh!
That alone is enough to impart more than a whiff of bullshit to all that follows.
I shot a pellet into a window. One of those old style 9 panel windows so the actual glass surface area is small thus tighter cohesiveness. Anyway I would say the hole is similar. Very round, near perfect round, with spidering and crevacing. The hole is about right, though they show much greater spidering and crevacing.
However, that’s not what a store front window would look like. They would have a very small entry and very large exit pattern.
Well, someone shot an upstairs window of mine. Clean hole. No cracking at all.
So how large was the hole you observed? Was it a half inch, quarter inch, one inch in diameter? I think much depends on the thickness of the glass and how it is made.
Any idea as to th caliber of the projectile? How large was the hole?
The top ones don’t look like BB or pellet holes... don’t ask me how I know this.
The inside pane is the one with the round hole. That would mean the pellet would have to have shattered the outside pane and THEN made an almost perfect round hole. No way, no how. Looks more to me that it was shot from the inside.
It is possible that the outer pane was already broken, or a hard projectile, such as a round rock or marble could have shattered the outer pane and holed the inner pane. At least that seems possible to me.
Both of the round holes show the outer glass broken with much larger holes than the inner one, also the outer glass breaks appear to be irregular.
Not sure that it means a great deal, but if both were broken at the same time, then it does not look like air rifle damage at first glance.
You really have to try to duplicate the circumstance to see what sort of damage that air rifle with those pellets would do. Even then, I am not sure that you could prove that the soldier did the shooting.
Air rifles are very common.
” How large was the hole?”
I’d say about .22 caliber,,, but it only penetrated the outside pane, not the inside. When I replace it, maybe i’ll find the projectile.
The large size of these holes makes them suspect to me. They appear to be at least an inch in diameter.
“The large size of these holes makes them suspect to me.”
Yup!
Idiocy abounds in America these days. If an agent cannot discern an air rifle, good grief.
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Especially “a telescopically high-powered rifle “
Something doesn't pass the smell test.
that an off-duty homeland security agent was looking at one of the unfinished houses (that had been damaged by vandals).
Was he OFF DUTY and touring the home?
Why was he touring an UNFINISHED home?
Especially one damaged by vandals?
Was he looking at one of the unfinished houses (that had been damaged by vandals), because it was damaged by vandals?
If he was, then he really wasn't off duty.
Why would DHS be looking at a vandalized house?
To be fair to the agent, from a distance, you may not notice more than a rifle with a scope on it.
Many air rifles have scopes on them these days.
I have had two in the last 10 years. They are fun, and can be used for small game. Much less energy than a .22, but can still be dangerous.
“Why would DHS be looking at a vandalized house?”
He was considering buying it.
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