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.

[Ciexyz]

I'm surprised they even identified him as "a Middle Eastern male". In my area, they identify perps as "a brown-haired male wearing a green jacket", deliberately omitting any mention of race. Unless it's in a positive sense, as in "the elderly man that wandered away from the nursing home is Caucasian...."

[TheMom]

I just asked the house genius,

That would be me.

;<)

No genius here!!

[Little Bill]

Disgruntled Union member? Had a guy punch out a Mill Right foreman after being fired for being too stupid to breath, name wasn't Mohammad though.

[eastforker]

And I've seen guys throats cut with gasket scapers, truck drivers driving in on RR tracks and plant superintedents cars stolen from inside the plant.Then there is the bomb threats that get called in. They check your lunch bucket but you could carry a stick of dynamite in your back pocket with the fuse exposed and you could walk right through the gate.

[Little Bill]

I know where you are coming from, we fired all the travelers from a certain IBEW Local for sabotage and general malfeasance.

[sweetliberty]

Your thoughts?

[Dog Gone]

I've made my thoughts all over this thread.

The only thing I would add is that a lot of this depends on the eyewitness testimony of the security guard. If this was indeed an arab, this is a huge deal.

If the guy who shot him was hispanic, then this may have been a drug rendezvous. I'm willing to consider this a big deal until convinced otherwise by new facts.

[FreedomCalls]

OK, I'll buy that explanation.

[sweetliberty]

Sorry. I was on the other thread on this story and then came over here so I hadn't seen your posts yet. It happens. ;-)

[Dog Gone]

Guard shot by man photographing plant

By PEGGY O'HARE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

FREEPORT -- The shooting of an unarmed security guard at a chemical plant here drew the attention of national security officials because the assailant, who spoke with a heavy accent, told the guard he was taking photographs of the plant.

But after repeated interviews with the shooting victim, federal authorities today said they have even less reason to believe the attack was the work of terrorists.

"As we have looked at this, we don't believe we have any kind of a terrorist threat or that there was any kind of terrorist planning or organization going on," FBI spokesman Bob Doguim said today.

Robbie House, a security guard contracted by BASF, told authorities his attacker was possibly of Middle Eastern or Pakistani descent. He also told police the gunman claimed to be photographing lights when the confrontation occurred in an isolated area near BASF's ammonia terminal on FM 1495 late Friday.

House, who was shot in the shoulder, is expected to make a full recovery, but the gunman and his truck have not been found.

After two FBI agents interviewed the wounded guard a second time this afternoon, FBI officials said circumstances surrounding the shooting remain suspicious.

Doguim would not say if House had changed his story and declined to give specifics about why law enforcement officials are leaning further away from the possibility of terrorism.

"The circumstances are what is at question here," Doguim said. "It's those circumstances that now with time, as dust clears, that we're going to pick apart and examine."

Doguim said it is "reasonable to assume" a person who suffered such a traumatic injury could have some "inconsistencies" in his story.

"If we're still asking, I think you should reasonably assume that we're not completely comfortable yet that we have everything as clear as we would like to have it," Doguim said.

Bulletins describing the gunman's appearance and his pickup were issued to law enforcement agencies across the state.

Police dogs brought in by the U.S. Department of Energy searched the grounds and discovered a projectile that investigators believe is connected to the shooting, Freeport Police Chief Henrietta Gonzalez said.

She asked the public to remain calm as the investigation continues.

"We feel very confident we've done everything we can do at this time ... based on the very vague information that we have," Gonzalez said Saturday. "We ask them not to be alarmed. We're working along with other authorities that can help us out."

FBI agents spent the day in Freeport, a seaside town an hour south of Houston that has many petrochemical plants and complexes. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and U.S. Coast Guard also were notified.

BASF would not discuss what security measures they are taking in response to the scare, the first such incident to happen at a chemical plant in the Freeport area.

"We obviously are taking this very seriously," said BASF spokeswoman Sharon Rogers.

The shooting happened about 9:15 p.m. Friday as House, who is contracted by BASF to patrol its properties, was making his rounds and noticed a suspicious pickup parked on a dirt access road along the highway, about a half-mile from BASF's ammonia terminal, police said. The guard told investigators that truck had no front license plate and its rear license plate was obscured because the truck's tailgate was down.

When the security guard asked the driver what he was doing there, the driver said he "was taking pictures of lights," Gonzalez said.

When the guard turned to speak into a radio attached to his shoulder, the man in the pickup shot him in the right shoulder, Gonzalez said. The man in the truck then fled toward Texas 36, she said.

The security guard said the gunman -- who appeared to be alone in the truck -- was possibly of Pakistani or Middle Eastern descent and spoke with a very heavy accent in broken English, Gonzalez said. The gunman had a dark complexion, dark hair, a mustache and five o'clock shadow, House told police.

[sweetliberty]

"When the security guard asked the driver what he was doing there, the driver said he "was taking pictures of lights," Gonzalez said."

When the guard turned to speak into a radio attached to his shoulder, the man in the pickup shot him in the right shoulder, Gonzalez said. The man in the truck then fled toward Texas 36, she said."

Nothing there to indicate terrorism. Seems like perfectly normal behavior. < /sarcasm >

[eastforker]

I wonder, does AQ pay money for information, was this a freelance recon gone bad.

[Budge]

FBI agent Bob Dogium said. "Right now there's no indication that it was terrorism," he said.

There was nothing to indicate terrorism when the first plane plowed into the WTC either.

[Budge]

Many years ago Houston had an ammonia truck explode on one of our interchanges in a densely populated area.

It didn't just explode, it crashed off a high overpass at I-610 and U.S. 59.

Not only did many, many people die trying to escape the ammonia, it even killed all the grass and landscaping around the Houston Post building nearby.

It was indeed horrible.

[demnomo]

That's true, however, unless the shooting victim's story is proved to be false, I'd just offer no comments at all if I were an authority.

On the other hand, I guess "no comment" is sorta like an affirmative to news hungry reporters who keep asking the "is it terrorism?" question.

[XBob]

43 - "Like you say, a little explosion could cause a big problem.
Years ago here in Houston an ammonia tanker truck fell off the 610/59 overpass and crashed to the road below. The fumes killed a bunch of people.

I can only imagine what blowing up a big tank of this stuff couild do."

And the explosion blew up 6 levels of freeway bridges one crossing above the other.
Killed 24 people or there abouts, evacuated people in 1/2 mile radius. Pretty well killed the Houston Post as a newspaper 1/4 mile away. It never did recover from that accident.

[John H K]

surprised they even identified him as "a Middle Eastern male". In my area, they identify perps as "a brown-haired male wearing a green jacket", deliberately omitting any mention of race.

"Middle Eastern" isn't a race.

Arabs are Caucasians.

And frankly "Middle Easterners" cannot be spotted on sight. To most any American people from Pakistan and India look "Middle Eastern" and that's 3,000 miles from the "Middle East."

And many Hispanics, Greeks, Southern Italians...would be pretty indistiguishable from a "Middle Eastern" person.

Some scholars define a "Mediterranean" sub-race of Caucasian.

[XBob]

BASF - is a german chemical company and makes the chemicals and plastics for everything in modern life, like DOW Chemical, and Dupont

You are surrounded by BASF, all around you, you keyboard is made from BASF plastic, your medicine is based on BASF chemicals, your CD is made from BASF plastics, your floor is shiny from BASF, you throw your garbage into BASF based bags, you read through BASF based lenses.

[XBob]

78 - "That poor tourist with the bushy black hair and mustache was obviously being racially profiled by that security guard. The tourist had every right to shoot the guard as well as some photos for his travel scrapbook.

Right..."

Yeah, Tourists always drive pickups to photograph remote chemical plants, big tourist attractions. LOL

[XBob]

80 - "Many years ago Houston had an ammonia truck explode on one of our interchanges in a densely populated area. It was horrible. I'd hate to picture an entire BASF tank blowing!"

It took about 18 months to get all the different levels of the exploded interchanges rebuilt to safe spec's. I remember - what a mess.