Posted on 02/13/2007 7:45:23 AM PST by brityank
ERIC MENCHER / Inquirer
Police have identified the three men who were fatally shot during a company board meeting last night inside a commercial building at the Navy Yard.
They are:
Mark Norris was Robert Norris was the
A fourth victim, whose name is being withheld, was still in critical condition this morning at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, police said.
The name of their alleged killer, whom police say shot himself to death during last night’s confrontation, is expected to be released later today. A news briefing is scheduled for 1 p.m.
Police said the shootings occurred about 8:30 p.m. during a meeting of the board of directors of a company called Watson International. The board was meeting at 5131 S. 11th St. in a structure known as Building 79, a former Navy procurement office that, like many of the warehouse-type buildings at the former Navy base and shipyard, is now home to private businesses.
At the scene last night, Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross said the gunman opened fire during a regularly scheduled meeting on the second floor. Police believe the gunman was a participant in the meeting, Ross said.
Police did not disclose the relationship between the shooter and the victims, but said the shootings happened after a dispute broke out during the meeting.
"It appeared that the shooter was upset over something that was going on inside the business," Ross said.
The cause "appeared to be something concerning money," Ross said.
A police source said there were six people in attendance, including the shooter. The gunman reportedly confronted the other board members with an allegation of fraud and then shot three of them dead, and a fourth possibly by accident.
One of the victims was shot seven times.
The police source said the gunman used an AK-47 assault rifle on the victims, then went outside and retrieved a .40-caliber pistol, which he later used in an exchange of fire with police.
He then took the two survivors into another room and bound them with duct tape, but otherwise left them alone.
The two survivors were being interviewed by homicide detectives last night. Ross said one had been so tightly bound that police had to cut him free.
The scene inside the conference room was "utter chaos," Ross said.
Police said they think Watson is an investment company.
When police arrived, they exchanged gunfire with the shooter inside the building as he stood about 100 yards away at an office door. He then went behind the door, and police were not sure if they had hit him, Ross said.
Officers at the scene called for SWAT support. At that point, someone from inside the building came from behind the shooter and told police that he was dead.
Police said the fatal wound was self-inflicted.
"This is a tragic situation," Ross said, "one that you always hope would not hit Philadelphia. Unfortunately, today it did."
The wounded man arrived at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital about 9 p.m. with multiple wounds.
A spokesperson said the man underwent surgery but remained in critical condition.
About 10:30, a woman leaped out of a police vehicle and was hustled into Jefferson's emergency-room entrance at 10th and Sansom Streets.
Building 79's primary occupant is Zigzag Net Inc., a Web site development company involved in advertising. It was unclear last night what the relationship was between Zigzag and Watson International, but officials indicated that they might have been business partners.
John Grady, senior of vice president of Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which is in charge of leasing space at the Navy Yard, said Building 79 is a 10,000-square-foot, two-story building on the waterfront. About a year ago, Zigzag leased 5,000 square feet on the second floor.
The shootings occurred inside Zigzag's space.
Last night's shootings was the worst single incident since the Lex Street massacre of December 2000, when 10 people were gunned down inside a West Philadelphia crackhouse, seven of them fatally.
Ping.
A better update of last night's breaking news.
We really need to give Philly to New Jersey or New York, and pull our police officers out of Philly, its just to dangerous....and a serge of more policemen won't work....
And prayers go to those who have lost loved ones in this mess and others before it.....
With our luck, they'd swap us Camden! ;^)
I didn't think of that, but your right....hummmm back to the drawing board.....
Jersey Board member retirement?
What???????
It was the guns! They turned the shooter from an innocent bystander into a raging homicidal madman!
Restructuring...
Wonder which genius told Ross that?
In the small world department, I did some business with Mark Norris 20 years ago.
The anti gun nuts are going to go nuts over this.
wowm thanks for th eupdate. This story is different than I assumed.
sorry - bad typos
you need another Rizzo type to take control of the city again.
Sooooo, you have noticed that the shootings are back and almost to the week after the election... it ain't just me. WEARD.
From Marines to business, Mark Norris was a big winner
This profile of Mark D. Norris was first published Nov. 14, 1994: ^Young he is, idealistic he is not. At least not when it comes to business.
Mark D. Norris talks enthusiastically about his work for causes, from AIDS to urban ills, but when it comes to making a living as head of a creative enterprise, he is unabashedly practical.
Just what you'd expect from a former Marine Corps recruiter.
With a disciplined business attitude front and center, Norris has turned his companies - UDI, a graphic design and advertising firm, and Send Inc., which creates upscale greeting cards - into forces to be reckoned with.
And people are noticing. Norris, 34, can add the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur of the Year award to the attention he has been getting lately.
UDI and Send Inc. are seeing enviable growth: an anticipated 25 percent to 30 percent this year for UDI, a $2-million-a-year company he formed in 1987, and more than 100 percent for Send Inc., which is 2 1/2 years old and one-quarter the size of UDI.
At the same time, he has doubled his staff, which stands at 11 and works out of a former Catholic career center on Broad Street near Federal Street.
A talented, aggressive and young-thinking staff - average age 29 - is only part of what has made Norris' corporate duo dynamic. Hard work has played a major role.
Norris could have made it easier on himself by gearing his business toward the African American market, he says. He is African American, and that would have been the obvious thing to do. "The greater challenge," he says, "is to do work for the general market."
"I've chosen to, how shall I put this, I've chosen to compete in a very competitive arena, which is the general market arena. When I walk into a room, I'm not what's expected. I'm not white."
Big clients have given him ever greater visibility. UDI designed Philadelphia International Airport's new logo. Its client list includes McDonald's Corp., Cigna Corp. and Lincoln Center in New York. One of UDI's more visible efforts can be seen on SEPTA buses: a campaign for radio station Power 99 (WUSL-FM) with the slogan "Stop the Violence, Increase the Peace."
There are big names on the greeting-card side, too. Send Inc. is in Macy's and Nordstrom.
"Suddenly, I'm realizing we've gone from local to national," says Norris, who hails from upstate New York, attended the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and found Philadelphia when he was assigned here as a Marine recruiter.
- Julie Stoiber Sounds like a sharp guy, what a waste.
Check #18
Check #18
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