Man opens fire with machine gun at university; two injured

The Associated Press ^ | 5/9/03 5:10 PM | By M.R. KROPKO

[demlosers]

CLEVELAND (AP) -- A man opened fire with a machine gun Friday at the business school at Case Western Reserve University. At least two people were reported injured.

Witnesses said the gunman was firing indiscriminantly.

School spokeswoman Marcie Hersh said the lone gunman was still in the Peter B. Lewis Building, which had been locked down. One person had been shot outside and was taken to a hospital. The other wounded person remained inside the building, she said.

LeKisha Spencer, 28, who works in a first-floor cafeteria said, she heard a bang and a saw a man walking inside the building toward the front.

"He had a machine gun, book bag, camouflage shirt, military green hat, white pants and a bookbag," she said. "I didn't see his face.

"He was just walking, aiming his guns and firing.

"I just went to the phone and dialed 911. I heard another bang."

She ran from the building.

"When I ran out the door, I still heard shots."

Squad cars surrounded the block, and officers had guns trained on the building, said William Day, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Music who was passing by.

Bonnie Copes, an administrative assistant, said she heard several gunshots beginning around 4 p.m.

Copes, 50, was locked in a department office inside the building and unable to leave. She continued to hear gunshots.

"Rounds and rounds and rounds," she said.

The $62 million Peter B. Lewis Building opened in the fall and was designed by Frank Gehry, the internationally renowned architect who also created the titanium-covered Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Case Western is at University Circle, a park-like setting of cultural, medical and educational institutions on the eastern edge of downtown. The school has 9,500 students.

The Lewis building is about five stories high. Instead of walls on the south side, it has a curving roof, made of 20,000 stainless-steel shingles, that seemingly tumbles to the ground.

Lewis, an art collector and the billionaire chairman of Progressive Insurance, gave Case $37 million toward construction of the building, which opened in the fall.

[Willie Green]

That building is one of the best reasons I've ever seen for removal of the pollution controls from coal fired power plants. We need to get a lot more particulates in the air to filter out the glare. Maybe cover that sucker with ¼" or so of soot.

[The FRugitive]

I completely agree, but unfortunately that just won't be too catchy on bumper stickers.

[Dead Dog]

Uncanny timing isn't it?

[Pharmboy]

You make an excellent point. Thank you.

[wardaddy]

She probably knows drive-bys unfortunately.

[ImpotentRage]

This exact comment was made the other day on a site talking about Feinstein's renewing the assault gun ban. The speculation was that there would be another gun incident to cement the move to extend the ban. I have wondered about these "incidents" for quite some time - they always seem so "convenient."

[Pharmboy]

Luckily we aren't a bumper-sticker society!! But, we certainly agree...stay armed (apologies to harpseal).

[SunnyUsa]

omg...UGLY.....you are so right!

I was looking at the pictures on TV and wondering what's wrong with that building!!!

[Henrietta]

Mine too!

[FreedomCalls]

This is the building that was shedding ice off the "roof" and very nearly killing pedestrians earlier in the winter. The "roof" slopes gradually into the "wall" and there is nothing, no gutter, no barrier, there to stop the sheets of ice from clobbering someone walking by. I predict someone will die, impaled by an icicle, in the next few years.

[midcop402]

Officer safety is a high priority. However, I just spent my day training 25 officers from the area in rapid response to active shooter. This is the third Friday of 10 installments involving this training. My goal is to train 300 plus officers this year in this tactic.
This tactic is designed to pursue, contact, and stop an active shooter. We give officers the necessary training to do this as safely as possible.
Unfortunately, our area is a minority on this training but more and more agencies will begin to buy into it.
While we still give officer safety top priority, we also give them the tools to do the job the public is paying them for. Disparaging remarks like this do not help in achieving this goal.

[TomServo]

Stories like this make you wonder what percentage of journalists have no experience with firearms. It is probably huge..

I would tend to believe this number parallels the number of journalists who have experience with journalism.

[George W. Bush]

That building is so butt-ugly, it probably incited the perp into an architecturally homicial rage.

Another architectural tragedy.

[marktwain]

Stories like this make you wonder what percentage of journalists have no experience with firearms. It is probably huge..

My educated guess is that the number would be in the high 90's.

There is a winnowing out process that occurs with journalists in the OldDominantLiberalMedia. If you show interest in firearms, or knowlege about them, you don't get promoted. Notice that even Rush had *no knowlege* of firearms until after he had made it big.

[Leo Carpathian]

Looking at that building makes you wonder: who was nuts, the designer on crack or builders constantly drunk - example of "modern" twisted architecture.

Another example is the shopping mall in downtown Toronto: looks like oil refinery - bunch of pipes, tubes and boxes. Eeeech!

[zx2dragon]

I have discounted such theories of the timing of such events for years, but I have to admit it was the second thing I thought of after trying to find out if everyone made it out alright.

[Petruchio]

Race was not stated, so it cannot be white.

Moo-Slime bin-laden wannabe type???

[coloradan]

The LEO's number one priority is Officer Safety, the public is secondary and this only for the public as a whole (the community) and not any one group (the university).

I think after officer safety is government officials.

[coloradan]

Disparaging remarks like this do not help in achieving this goal.

Police officers have no duty to protect individuals or particular businesses or entities, except those with a "special relationship" to them or to the government. The courts have repeatedly held that the police can not be sued for failing to protect, simply because that isn't something they have the responsibility to do in the first place.

And pointing this fact out doesn't obstruct the police in doing what they do have the responsbility to do - but it might help because it disabuse someone who does think the police are there to protect them of that notion, causing them to take steps for their own protection.

[TalBlack]

....Squad cars surrounded the block, and officers had guns trained on the building,...

That's in case the building made any false or threatening moves.

I guess if you are IN the building getting shot at and waiting the cops to come chargeing in you're pretty much....well...on your own.