Security guard wounded outside chemical plant tells his story
KHOU-TV
Robert House goes home from
the hospital Monday afternoon.05:48 PM CST on Monday, January 26, 2004
The security guard whose shooting at the BASF ammonia plant this weekend in Freeport that set off questions about terrorism is telling his story to 11 News.
As Robert House left the hospital the mystery of what happened to him has only deepened. "Gentleman was pointing a pistol towards my chest," he says. "I turned a little bit trying to tell him, 'No, no don't shoot me,' when he shot me."
The shooting happened in a muddy lot outside a Freeport chemical plant Saturday.
House was working security when he said he noticed the suspect sitting in a white pick-up truck taking pictures of the lights around the facility.
Hours after House took a bullet in the shoulder FBI agents showed up in his hospital room to give him a lie-detector test. "The test was telling him that I shot myself," says House. "And I told him that I didn't and he said that he could see it in my eyes that I was crying out for some type of help."
So 11 News then asked the Freeport police chief if this case now seems fishy. "I'm not going to answer that," says Chief Henrietta Gonzalez.
Investigators say that House does not have a criminal record. And police are still investigating his initial story. "Sure, we're believing what he says at this time," says Gonzalez. "And we're following up with what he told us."
Five years ago the shooting of a security guard outside of a chemical plant probably wouldn't have even made news, but House's allegation in this post 9-11 environment has attracted a lot of attention.
Freeport police are working closely with the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI in an attempt to get to the bottom of this.
House is back at home and has hired an attorney. He wouldn't say when he would return to work, and wouldn't answer specific questions.
The FBI maintains that the shooting does not have any connection to terrorism.
