Arkansas Dem Party Chairman Shot

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080813/ap_on_re_us/democratic_party_shooting

okay wtf, first that church shooting and now this????

Ugggh. I hope the guy who got shot pulls through OK; no word so far.

okay wtf, first that church shooting and now this????

Yeah, I'll be pretty surprised if this turns out to be a personal beef. I'll admit that I found myself thinking "please please let it be some crazy Malkin worshipper, not someone within the party" within seconds of seeing the headline.

all right let's not get ahead of ourselves.

cnn: The suspect, who fled the scene after the shooting in a pickup truck, led police on a chase into Grant County before being shot, Hastings said. Hastings did not release the suspect's name, what condition he was in or where he was shot, saying the investigation was ongoing.

Yeesh.

I'll admit that I found myself thinking "please please let it be some crazy Malkin worshipper, not someone within the party" within seconds of seeing the headline.

Tracking the comments at HotAir will be interesting.

I know, I know; it's just human nature (to immediately start speculating) (whether you voice said speculations or not).

xpost to goole

hmmm a chase and no suicide would seem to indicate the guy had a plan/expectation to get away ... which would (sorta) point away from depressed loony and more towards a politically/maybe personally motivated thing.

I'm guessing personal. We'll see.

^^ Yeah, I'd assume you don't get very far in this career without a whole lot of complicated dealings with a whole lot of people, so ...

Forgive me for making a joke at the expense of a hastily written news item, but I read this ...

She said the secretary described the man as in his 40s and white and drove off in a blue truck.

... and couldn't figure out why the secretary's vehicle was of any importance, or why she ran away right after describing the guy.

That's not the secretary's truck, it's the truck of the woman talking about the secretary.

jesus christ.

That's what you get when you outsource journalism to India. --Lou Dobbbs

The extra "b" is for "bigot"?

Maybe all three of them left together!

hijinks ensue

PARTY CAR

er PARTY PICKUP

From the Arkansas Times blog:

State Democratic Party Chair Bill Gwatney was shot at State Democratic Party Headquarters on Capitol Avenue about 11:50 a.m. today, witnesses at the scene said. Police were not releasing the vicitm's identity, but it was supplied by several people on the scene.

There was no official report on his condition, but he was taken from the scene in an ambulance and a witness said the wound was serious. Police (shown at crime scene briefing shortly after the shooting) said later that he'd been shot three times in the upper body and was in critical condition.

The shooter had entered the office and asked to see the party chairman. He was led to an office reportedly pushed by a worker who tried to detain him and the shots were heard shortly after. The man ran out and drove off.

At a briefing less than an hour after the shooting, police said the shooter left in a blue pickup. The truck was discovered close by. The man apparently changed to another car, which police were able to identify. A chase ensued and it ended in Sheridan, where police say the suspect was shot and taken into custody. His condition is unknown. The police had no indication of motive. Several Democratic employees were in the office at the time and were being questioned about what they'd seen.

The chase ended near the Winston Clinic on the northern edge of Sheridan in a developed portion of town. There were conflicting reports about whether police fired shots during the chase or after the car left the highway and stopped an open field. Authorities were still swarming that scene in Sheridan at 1 p.m. A police spokesman said the wounded man was airlifted from the scene.

Gwatney's secretary made the 911 call from a florist shop next door. She was heard to tell the police dispatch: "Help, our chairman's been shot."

The shooter was described in the phone call as a man in his 40s, with whitish hair and wearing khaki pants.

Police may have picked up the shooter's trail because he threatened someone with a gun nearby. Reports were that a man with a gun confronted a building manager in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention office building a few blocks east of Democratic headquarters and said he'd lost his job. He pointed the gun, but didn't shoot. He fled in a vehicle whose description was reported to police.

Gwatney was an executive in a car dealership group, a business in which employment changes are not uncommon. Rumors immediately arose that the shooter might have been a disgruntled former employee of the Gwatney Chevrolet dealership in Jacksonville.

Gov. Mike Beebe was en route by plane to Northwest Arkansas when the shooting occurred. He got word and returned to Little Rock. He was with the Gwatney family at UAMS.

Under the Dome, Rep. Steve Harrelson's blog, reported that the Capitol was in "lockdown" after the shooting.

He was led to an office reportedly pushed by a worker who tried to detain him and the shots were heard shortly after.

...waht

I can pretty much predict the reaction on the right if this all turns out to be a personal grievance -- namely, making fun of the Democrats for not being pro-gun-rights, the better to gun down disgruntled employees in your office.

haha yeah "if only Gwatney had been packing"

i think "pushed by" means "pushed past" in that sentence

I think the thing that's getting me is they're saying he was led to the office by pushing past an employee...? waht

i imagine he made a huge fuss about seeing the guy, was brought some of the way back from the front desk, then pulled his gun, then pushed his way past someone who tried to stop him?

panda eats lou dobbs, shoots and leaves

He was led to an office, (was) reportedly pushed by a worker who tried to detain him, and the shots were heard shortly after.

That was my interpretation.

yeah that does make more sense

assailant is dead

christ again.

disgruntled about losin his job? this is getting to sound depressingly similar to that church shooting thing.

More of the story, including quote from Howard Dean

And he's gone.

fuck.

RIP

this sucks.

this is horrifying

goddammit.

Fuck. Rest in peace.

So wait, what's the motive for the shooting? The reports say the shooter had no involvement or history with the party chairman.

Police identified the suspect as 50-year-old Timothy Dale Johnson of Searcy, a town about 50 miles northeast of Little Rock. They didn't know a motive. However, moments after the shooting, Johnson pointed a handgun at a worker at the nearby Arkansas Baptist headquarters. An official there said he told the worker, "I lost my job."
...
Witnesses said the gunman entered the party offices shortly before noon and said he wanted to see Gwatney.

"He said he was interested in volunteering, but that was obviously a lie," said 17-year-old party volunteer Sam Higginbotham. He said that when the suspect was refused a meeting with Gwatney, he pushed past employees to reach the chairman's office.

Hastings said the suspect and Gwatney introduced themselves to one another, at which time the suspect "pulled out a handgun and shot Gwatney several times." Hastings didn't say what the two discussed, but said their discussion was not a heated one.

Gwatney's family owns a franchise of car dealerships in central Arkansas (An inflatable dinosaur that sat atop one of their buildings was frequently referred to by locals as "Gwatzilla".)

Some have speculated that the shooter had been part of some recent lay-offs, but state police said that wasn't true during a press conference this afternoon.

lay-offs at one of the dealerships... sorry.

Sad news. RIP.

he wasn't laid off, he quit, and he didn't work at a dealership

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/us/15arkansas.html