DENVER - A man carrying a gun and declaring "I am the emperor" was shot and killed Monday outside the offices of Gov. Bill Ritter by a security officer, a spokesman said. Ritter was not injured.
The unidentified man refused orders to drop his gun, spokesman Evan Dreyer said. Four or five shots were heard, but authorities would not say how many times the security officer fired.
Before he was shot, the gunman said, "I am the emperor and I'm here to take over state government," Dreyer said.
The shooting occurred in a hall outside the governor's offices on the first floor of the Capitol. Dreyer said Ritter was in the Capitol at the time but would not say where.
"The governor is fine," Dreyer said. "Everybody is a bit rattled."
The Capitol has no metal detectors. They are usually installed temporarily during the governor's annual State of the State address in January but then are removed.
State Rep. Edward Casso said he saw the gunman after the shooting and described him as being in his 30s or 40s, dressed in a white shirt and dark slacks.
Casso said a state patrolman told him to evacuate, adding, "I started to panic a little bit. I was just hoping that was the end of it."
Authorities roped off the area where the man was shot, and an ambulance and eight police cars converged on the building's north entrance.
Pat Garriott said he was eating in the basement cafeteria when he heard shots.
"We heard a series of loud bangs, about four," he said. "My partner and I looked up and saw a flash of smoke. We figured out it was probably gunshots."
Security agents rushed them into a basement office for safety and kept them there for about 20 minutes, he said.
Casso, a first-term Democrat, said the Capitol should have metal detectors.
"It's kind of freaky someone could get that close," he said.
― scott seward, Monday, 16 July 2007 22:10 (eighteen years ago)
with multiple emperors running around an issue of which emperor is, in quantitive terms, the 'poorest', as it were, may arise.
― blueski, Monday, 16 July 2007 23:53 (eighteen years ago)
Bow down: I am the emperor of dreams:
I crown me with the million-colored sun
Of secret worlds incredible, and take
Their trailing skies for vestment, when I soar,
Throned on the mounting zenith, and illume
The spaceward-flown horizons infinite.
Clark Ashton Smith
― Stone Monkey, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)
The Emperor of Ice-Cream
by Wallace Stevens
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal.
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
― Abbott, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 21:18 (eighteen years ago)
I have to note this guy was breaking the Consittution's Title of Nobility clause:
Clause 8. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
― Abbott, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 21:20 (eighteen years ago)