Guns, Pipe Bombs, Ammo Recovered

KCTV 5 News Kansas City ^ | Feb 26,2004 | JEFF DOUGLAS

[Travis McGee]

By JEFF DOUGLAS Associated Press Writer

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Police have recovered guns, pipe-bombs and thousands of ammunition rounds from a burned-out home where two sets of human remains were found in the days after a bizarre incident in which a paramedic was shot while responding to a fire.

Investigators found the second set of remains Wednesday, but police haven't yet identified either set or the cause of the fires.

Meanwhile, the paramedic shot twice in the chest after responding to the initial call, 39-year-old Mary Seymour, was sitting up and talking Thursday at an area hospital, where she remains in fair condition, Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust officials said.

"She's in good spirits," said MAST spokesman Eric Dooley.

Responding to the explosion and fire at the first house on Monday afternoon, Seymour and other paramedics, firefighters and police officers came under gunfire shortly after they arrived at the scene. The gunfire came from the direction of the house across the street, which later exploded.

"This is one of the most dangerous situations we have ever encountered," said Police Chief Rick Easley, a 30-year veteran of the department.

Authorities said the rifles and handguns discovered at the scene ranged is size from .22 to .50 caliber. One of the guns was identified as a magazine-fed, high-powered Barrett .50 caliber rifle, which officials said can cost up to $8,000. In all, police said they recovered about 20 guns in various conditions, parts of at least 20 pipe-bombs, and thousands of rounds of live and discharged ammunition.

Some of those guns were stowed among three large gun safes also found in the ruble. Fletcher said fragments from those safes were scattered up to 300 feet from the house by the explosion.

While police have no estimate on the number of rounds fired at officers, firefighters and paramedics, the ambulance that responded was riddled with between 30 and 40 bullet holes.

At a news conference Thursday morning, police spokesman Capt. Ron Fletcher said authorities plan to wrap up their investigation at the crime scene Thursday. He spoke at a police garage in front of one of the squad cars that responded to the scene; there were at least four bullet holes in the car, which had its seats pierced and windshield shattered by the gunfire.

Fletcher said the officers who responded to the fire and used the car as a shield returned to duty Thursday.

Neighbors have said Donin E. Wright, and his girlfriend, Janet Clark, lived in one of the homes, and that Wright also owned the second home, which was vacant.

Police initially described Wright as a "person of interest," but called off a search for him on Tuesday, the same day that animal and human remains were found in the rubble. Friends of Clark said they have been unable to contact her since Monday afternoon.

Officials said remains found appeared to be those of adults, but while they await DNA evidence they continue to search for Clark.

Wright had been in a dispute with the city over code violations at his property, court records show, and had been due at a hearing Monday morning. The scheduled hearing had stemmed from his conviction last fall for failing to get a permit for a pile of construction debris on the property.

He failed to show up for the hearing, and a municipal judge issued a warrant for his arrest, city prosecutor Beth Murano said.

Wright's former wife, Beverly, said in the petition that led to their 1998 divorce that he was dangerous and she was afraid of him. http://www.kctv5.com/Global/story.asp?S=1671440

[Travis McGee]

This story has been big over on "The High Road" gun forum. There are many articles on this incident in the Kansas City Star etc. There are possible connections back to Oklahoma City and the militias etc. Lots of pictures of burned rifles and so on laid out by the police. Reports of sniper fire. Fifty calibers hitting a paramedic. Bodies found in the ashes. The site bulldozed right away.

[Travis McGee]

BANG!

[OXENinFLA]

I'm sure we'll here about this on the senate floor during the current debate on gun control.

[Old Sarge]

PING to the gang.

Seems wierd, that the site would get bulldozed...

[BenLurkin]

They did the same thing in Santa Clarita, California after a shoot out and fire in a nice residential neighborhood. Couldn't bury the place fast enough for some reason.

[Joe Brower]

I just got your ping about this article. Looks like you got your computer working, at least enough to post this. Where is the link on thehighroad.org?

Sounds like some nuts got their come-uppance here. Firing at parameds is not a good thing, as I see it. Looks like SOP was followed here by LE -- burn the place down around the perps ears and then bulldoze everything afterwards. Can't think of a good reason why that's always done in these cases.

Oh, got the book by the way. Gracias, senor! Looks like another fun read.

[Old Sarge]

I wonder: did they, or did they not, complete the site search before the blades came in?

[Joe Brower]

Whups! Found it:

TheHighRoad.org thread

[Myrddin]

I don't buy the "50 calibers hitting a paramedic". If such had been fired from the Barrett at that range, the paramedic would not have survived. There's not too many .50 caliber handguns around. The Desert Eagle 50AE and a few revolvers in .500 S&W and .500 Linebaugh. Out of those 3, a hit from the Desert Eagle 50AE is likely a survivable experience.

The bulldozing of the site is an inexcusable behavior. Someone is trying to cover up again. Particularly when the site had a pricey magazine fed Barrett .50. Something is fishy.

[Indie]

Something is rotten. Timing is too close to the gun debate in Congress. The boots love to bulldoze fast...just like Waco. Probably a couple of ex-CIA officers doing the shooting. They're all nuts.

[judicial meanz]

That is wierd.

They should keep the site quarantined until all unexploded ordinance is removed, and all evidence is recovered.

I understand from the article it was partially burned and may present a collapse hazard, but apparently there is a lot of unexploded ammo, etc still around.

[meadsjn]

The big question is, "who was doing the shooting?". The reports say the shots came from the corner across the street, while the supposed "suspect" was burning up in the house. The shooting stopped when the burning house exploded.

Chances are the "suspect" was already dead and fully roasted while the shooting was in progress, and there was no need to look for the shooter, because ...?

[CDHart]

"Seems wierd, that the site would get bulldozed..."

It worked so well at Waco and Oklahoma City, why tamper with success? (sarcasm)

Carolyn

[meadsjn]

Sorry. I neglected to consider that the shooter could have crossed the street back through the smoke to the house after the explosion, and nestled among the glowing embers to roast himself.

[MizSterious]

Kind of makes ya go hmmm....

[Travis McGee]

There are so many crazy factoids and rumors around this incident that it's hard to know what the heck was going on. Maybe it was a "Karl Drega" kind of suicide-by-cop, maybe they were set up by enemies in the govt, old criminal or "militia" buddies, who knows? Very wierd.

[Travis McGee]

Very little about this report makes sense. It just about hammers my suspicion meter. Were there or were there not snipers across the street? Were the snipers, if any, friends or enemies of the deceased couple?

Were the "snipers" possibly a LE team executing a sneak and peak on the deceased "person of interests" other property? Did this result in an alarm at the main house, an armed response, and a shootout, into which the paramedics and local LEOs stumbled?

Were the "snipers" at the other property criminal pals looking to collect something owed to them, with the same result: a crossfire between the properties?

What was the ignition source of the fire? Who launched said ignition source?

If there were "snipers" at the second property, have they been identified?

Something tells me we are only seeing a sliver of this story.

[Atlas Sneezed]

They did the same thing in Santa Clarita, California after a shoot out and fire in a nice residential neighborhood. Couldn't bury the place fast enough for some reason.

---

Most have forgotten that incident that occurred just before 9-11. I will never forget it, as I wathced it live for several hours on Fox News.

[dangerdoc]

"I don't buy the "50 calibers hitting a paramedic".

When my battalion was in Somalia, one of my corpsmen took a 50 cal round through the chest from a .50 BMG. It went through and through. It only hit lung and front and back chest wall. He had the mother of all sucking chest wounds but be survived.

The local news never said what caliber rifle was used.

[Travis McGee]

Don't forget the police cross-fire shootout through a house in Lubbock Texas a few years back. The police blamed the innocent home owner for a dead cop shot by another cop, and arrested him and charged him with murder. Lucky for him, he owned no 5.56 weapons. The cops put 100s of rounds through the front and back of his house, shooting at each other.

They tried to blame it all on the innocent home owner, who was badly wounded, and had his house shot to splinters. That was another case were the stage-managed early reports were nothing like the truth.

(I guess where those Lubbock Texas cops goofed up was in not firing in incendiary OC grenades, and burning down the house and the victim, and bulldozing the site.)