BASF guard shot Freeport, Texas Chemical Plant Complex

The Facts online newspaper ^ | 1-24-2004 | Staff Reports

[buffyt]

FREEPORT — Police were looking for a man Friday night who they said shot a BASF security guard at the perimeter of the plant near FM 1495 and Highway 36.

Freeport Police Chief Henrietta Gonzalez said the guard approached a suspicious truck about 9:20 p.m. and the man inside said he had been taking pictures. He then shot the guard in the shoulder area, Gonzalez said.

“He was shot at point-blank range,” said Detective Sgt. Sue Dietrich. “You could see the powder burns.”

Police did not release the guard’s name, but said he was doing well at Brazosport Memorial Hospital late Friday night.

The guard told police the shooter was a man of Middle-Eastern descent with bushy hair and a mustache, and had been driving a white pickup with tinted windows and a black stripe. The truck did not have a front license plate, according to police radio reports.

BASF spokeswoman Sharon Rogers said there is no indication the shooting is linked to terrorism.

“There is nothing for us to indicate anything other than there is a shooting that happened on our property,” Rogers said. “We’ll just have to see what the investigation will reveal.”

Rogers said the security guard was employeed by Munday Corp., which provides the plant’s security force.

The culprit left the scene just after the shooting and did not get inside the plant gates, police said.

As of 10:30 p.m., Dietrich said the incident was not being investigated as an attempted terrorist attack.

FBI officials in Houston confirmed they had been notified of the incident but would not comment further.

The guard had been patrolling the perimeter of the plant, outside the gate and near a water tower, but in view of the plant’s ammonia tank. There was no access road or gate into the plant from the site of the shooting.

The wounded guard managed to drive down FM 1495 to the nearest plant gate, where an off-duty sheriff’s deputy working security at the plant called police.

The truck was last seen heading west on Highway 36, according to police radio reports.

[txeagle]

The area where this occurred is at a T-intersection where Hwy 36 intersects FM 1495/Pine Street. There are no buildings for several hundred yard in any direction, as the site is outside of town, and most of the surrounding area is port/industrial land. The guards usually sit in a truck at a fenced road that used to serve as a driveway when gambling ships berthed at the port. The main port gate with a manned guard shack is about 3/4s of a mile away.

There are streetlights, but it's not that well lit. What is curious about this is that the area is wide open, so the guard, if he was in his usual spot (that's where he was sitting at 8:30 last night when I drove by), would have seen the assailant from quite a ways off, and had plenty of time to observe events and get backup before going it alone. This is a port, and all types of undesirables filter through the area, not to mention late-night partiers coming from nearby Quintana beach.

I'm not quite ready to jump on the terrorist bandwagon over this. However, next time I go by in my white pickup with limo tint on the windows, I think I'll roll through the stop sign.......

[TheMom]

There are several reasons I am skeptic. 1) Security guards tend not to be the brightest in the box; 2) He is a security guard in Freeport, TX (I know the area & people well); 3) He ducked a shot being fired out of a truck window and it hit him in the shoulder?? (do the math on that one) and 4) He was shot while reaching for his microphone, yet after being shot & seeing the shooter drive away he drove himself the the guard shack.

It just smells fishy.

[Dog Gone]

I don't think that's necessarily true. If they've passed the Texas Concealed Handgun Law training, I'm almost positive that they are allowed to carry.

[TheMom]

I could be wrong, but I don't think so. Yes, if they have a concealed carry license they can carry a gun - - but security companies do not allow their employees to carry while on the job, unless they are a certified peace officer.

[TheMom]

I remember when that email came out. I laughed - - ha, ha, that is funny. NOW that I have headed into the hell that is menopause, I don't think it is so damn funny - I think it is dead on!! ;-)

[Dog Gone]

A google search turns up all kinds of Texas security agencies that offer both armed and unarmed security officers. Armored car drivers are not off-duty policemen, for example.

[TheMom]

My bad! I never considered armored car drivers as security guards.

I just asked the house genius, he said there are two ratings of security guards - those that can carry and those that can't (duh!). Kinda like you said in one of the above post.

Damn, I hate being wrong!!

[WFTR]

It apppears that the Freeport facility is manufacturing polymers primarily. Any chemical engineers out there that can tell us what can be done with the stuff?

It depends on which polymers

[RaceBannon]

major bump on terror

[WFTR]

That attitude, in part, led to 911 IMHO...and its continuance will lead ultimately to worse if we are not careful.

Thanks for saying what I always say on these threads. You've saved me a little typing.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

It's the most common color lots of places. Last year, we had 2 white pickups and a white SUV. Doesn't absort heat, and doesn't show scratches.

[Little Bill]

BASF is a Swiss outfit, if I remember correctly.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

Overuse of that insult, weakens it.

Overuse in thinking everything is a terrorist attack weakens the nation, to hell with weak insults.

I did not ID the nuts, its a self identifying thing, you in?

I do not think people are nuts for thinking this is a terrorist. I do think the "move along" group and those who think the authorities have denied an attack, when all they have said is that they have no evidence it is an attack, are nuts.

Living as I do in the area allow me a few idle thoughts. Most people in the dark can't tell a South American from a middle easterner, some can't in daylight. We have lots of South Americans on the Texas Gulf Coast. It also happens that a large number of middle eastern types live in the area. Freeport is not a built up area and is far too far from the Super Bowl to affect those in attendance. HOWEVER the drug trade in coastal counties is a huge problem. Perhaps the guard walked into a drug deal about to happen?

[eastforker]

All y'all would be amazed at incidents that happen at chemical plants that are never reported to the media.I am surprised this incident seen the light of day.

[Happy2BMe]

"As of 10:30 p.m., Dietrich said the incident was not being investigated as an attempted terrorist attack."

I smell a rat.

[Happy2BMe]

"I suspect that the blindness on this is intentional - don't alarm the "sheeple". After 9/11, the sheeple population has decreased, at least in terms of panic."

I second that.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

So then what's the alternative explanation for his activity?

Well around Freeport Texas my best guess would be a dope deal.

[Happy2BMe]

"You folks are a hoot!"

And what then, does a HOOT look like? Mustache, narrow eyes, what?

[Happy2BMe]

"Why do these people have an infinite love for white pickups?"

What does Allah drive?

[Ciexyz]

No ties to terrorism, cause the Middle East puke wasn't wearing his Al Qaeda Booster badge.