Ten Dead in Alabama Shootings

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Ten Dead in Alabama Shootings
36
Tue, 03-10-2009 - 11:02pm

This happened today, just about 30 miles from where we live. 


 


GENEVA, Ala. - A gunman went on a shooting spree in two neighboring south Alabama towns Tuesday, killing nine people before he shot himself at a metals plant, authorities said.


State police and Geneva Mayor Geneva Mayor Wynnton Melton said that 10 people were dead, including the gunman.


More people were believed to have been wounded. A spokeswoman at Flowers Hospital in Dothan said two children were airlifted to Children's Hospital of Alabama in Birmingham.


The shooter, who remained unnamed but was described as a white man in his 30s, first killed his mother in Samson, Ala., Melton told MSNBC TV, then shot to death eight other people before committing suicide in a metals plant in nearby Geneva.


State and local police are investigating at least four crime scenes believed to involve one gunman, according to the Alabama state police.


Five die at one home
State police reported that the shootings began late Tuesday afternoon in Samson in Geneva County, where the gunman killed four adults and one child at one home, one adult at a second home, and another adult at a third residence.


The gunman fled and traveled on Alabama Highway 52, where he shot at a state trooper's vehicle, striking it seven times and slightly wounding the trooper, who was hit by broken glass.


The gunman then shot and killed another person at Samson Pipe and Supply on Alabama 52, and an individual at a service station, also on Alabama 52.


The man, state police said, then pulled into the parking lot of Reliable Metal Products two miles north of Geneva on Alabama Highway 27, where he fired an estimated 30-round burst at pursuing officers. One of the bullets hit Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey, who was saved by his bullet proof vest, the safety department said.


The gunman entered the business. Within minutes, shots were heard from within Reliable Metal, and law enforcement officers found the man dead from what are believed to be self-inflicted gunshots.


Shooting at people on porches
The gunman had worked at Reliable Metal, said state Rep. Warren Beck, a Republican whose district includes Geneva. Authorities said he used multiple weapons.


State fire marshals are also investigating a burned house in Coffee County where one body was found. It is believed to be related to the other shootings.


State Sen. Harri Anne Smith, R-Slocomb, said some of those killed in Samson were sitting outside.


"He was just driving down the street shooting at people sitting on their porches," she said. "A family was just sitting on the porch and they were shot."


Soleta Darden witnessed the shootout, the Dothan Eagle reported.


"I heard five shots to my right, and then I looked up and saw a maroon Eclipse speed off from the scene, then I saw deputies and troopers in pursuit after him,” Darden said. "I was just scared, crazy scared. I thought, 'What the crap is going on.'"


Geneva is near the Florida border in southeast Alabama. It has a population about 4,400, and neighboring Samson about 2,000.


WTVY TV reported that the gunman did not injure anyone at Reliable Metal Products, according to witnesses. The station got a call from a worker at the business as they crouched in a corner during the ordeal.


The FBI bureau in Mobile sent an agent to assist the Geneva County sheriff's office and local police, a spokeswoman for the FBI told CNN. A message left by The Associated Press with the FBI was not immediately returned.


Reliable Products makes grills and vents for heating and AC systems, mainly for hotels. A call to a person who answered the phone at the plant said no one could talk about the shooting.


The towns of Geneva and Samson are about 11 miles apart, and roughly 30 miles south of Fort Rucker.

 
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 4:02pm
Yeah, I've never understood that mentality.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 4:15pm

"THE

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 4:44pm

Yep.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 5:06pm

In either case, the real problem is...


...how we can be better at recognizing individuals who are capable of these crimes, and how to defend ourselves and our society from them.


The particular tools used are irrelevant. Note that each of these men used a car. The man in Alabama would have been unable to conduct his killing spree without his automobile. But we recognize that the vast majority of automobile owners use their automobiles for perfectly legal and justifiable (even disireable) taks, so we don't demonize automobile owners.


Until we can read the future and/or minds, we won't know 100% of the time who will take "justice" (as they see it) into their own hands and kill or wound innocents in the process.


That has been true since the first socity recognized the need for law and order. There will always be some among us who are capable of violence and lack the ability or desire to control that ability. It is simply a fact of life. As individuals, and as a society, we have two tasks wrt this problem:


1) How to avoid violence whenever possible, and


2) How to defend ourselves against the violent.


Increasingly, the overall good of society is being threatened by the run amok insistence of...


...people who don't respect the constitution or the Supreme Court, who confuse a criminal with his tools, and who would penalize a hundred million law abiding coitizens whose guns

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martinisnsushi - the two most important food groups!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 6:41pm
This is so sad.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-2007
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 8:27pm

The 3-month-old baby that was shot is recovering in a local children's hospital here in Pensacola, FL.

GO NOLES!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 03-11-2009 - 11:45pm
The "City of OPPortunity"
 
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 12:03am
I think you are "trivalizing" this event, comparing a car/vehicle with a gun.
 
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 12:18am

We were in Pensacola Florida today, to sit with family members of a cousin who was involved in a bad car accident last week.

 
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 9:35am
I think you are "trivalizing" this event,

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martinisnsushi - the two most important food groups!