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: 03-03-2009
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 1:40pm

Cars are used for transportation. That's their primary purpose. Guns are used for.....what? Who NEEDS to use them, outside of those in law enforcement or military careers? Even most hunters these days are of the "sport" variety, not primarily killing to feed their families or prevent destruction of crops. The factors of need and primary use are far far far from irrelevant, particularly given the mayhem which modern "personal" firearms are capable of quickly wreaking in comparison to those of the day in which the Constitution was written.

Since we're hauling in the Constitution's Second Amendment, do let us consider the full context of keeping and bearing arms: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." There are a couple of phrases which gun owners seem to blithely ignore--like "well regulated militia". Last time I looked most gun-owners didn't belong to such a thing--though there are some who exercise a VERY questionable logic that the mere fact of ownership means membership in that "well-regulated militia". Not sure what part of "well-regulated" or "milita" they're not getting! Or how about "security of a free state"? Diddly squat about individuals--it's the STATE to which they refer. And yet, over and over and over again, gun owners focus solely on the last clause of the sentence.

Generally speaking, societies with any sort of structure or stability, delegate their defense, individual and collective, domestic and international, to specific institutions of law enforcement and armed forces. If it's such a dangerous place to live that one needs must keep a weapon, then something has gone badly awry with governance and accountability--and the proper sphere for resolution (not just temporary reaction) is political, not by force of arms.




Edited 3/12/2009 5:53 pm ET by jabberwocka

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-03-2009
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 3:29pm

Aside from the negative connotations of "weaselly", I was kinda hoping for that role since the weasel gets to go "pop"! Maybe we can trade in the next round (is it nine, ten, or something higher?!).

While the RKBA is granted to the people, it is done so in the context of the two preceding clauses. And the wording is clear. The militia is to be "well-regulated" and that militia is "necessary to the security of a free state". How many gun owners are members of their state's militia? My guess--not many and moreover, those which are members probably don't provide their own weapons while serving in the militias.

Speaking of state militias, the link you provided indicated that state defense forces are regulated by the National Guard Bureau through the Army National Guard of the United States. More digging around revealed that SDF's aren't exactly major players though their numbers grew in the days immediately following 9/11. http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2003-09-07-state-defense_x.htm
Legislation was proposed to improve the status of SDF's but it never got anywhere: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-3401

About the shooting in Illinois:
"Terry Sedlacek’s room included two 12-gauge shotguns, a rifle and a box of 550 .22-caliber bullets, according to court documents filed Tuesday."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29632373/
and
"Madison County State's Attorney Bill Mudge said Sedlacek had three magazines with 10 rounds each for the .45 Glock he carried into First Baptist Church of Maryville Sunday. His gun jammed after his fourth shot. He also had a knife.
Sedlacek is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated battery. He is being held without bail on the indictment filed Monday in Madison County Circuit Court.
Mudge confirmed other weapons were confiscated from the home, but declined to comment on Sedlacek’s possible mental state.
"We'll have to see what happens with his medical condition," Mudge said.
Mudge said that Sedlacek was a hunter and had previously held a firearm permit, but officials are still investigating the current status of his permit. There were no prior acts of violence on Sedlacek's record, he said."
http://tinyurl.com/bk7hrw

But get a load of this story from the St. Louis Post Dispatch which contained the following quote:
"We went through it for nine years," she said, "and it can be cured in 30 days."
http://tinyurl.com/derwuu
To me, that quote means he got the weapons before he started having problems AND NOBODY CHECKED ON OR UPDATED HIS STATUS FOR NINE YEARS or he was able to procure those weapons while he was having mental problems. Scary either way. And if he had those weapons for years, what was his mother thinking about their potential harm in the hands of her mentally-ill son? Good grief.

I'll agree with you that the Brady Campaign is willing to accept restrictions ("infringements", if you will) but then again the founders of BC know first hand the terrible harm which guns can inflict.

Jabberwocka

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 5:08pm

Fair enough.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 5:09pm
Gotcha.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 6:04pm

--


martinisnsushi - the two most important food groups!

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-2007
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 6:05pm

Welcome to Pensacola.

GO NOLES!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 10:14pm
What a tragedy that accident was!
 
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-2007
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 10:27pm

What a small world.

GO NOLES!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 03-13-2009 - 10:24pm

Our son graduated Tate in '85.

 
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 03-13-2009 - 10:42pm

In Andalusia Alabama the local radio station sponsored donations for the families of the shootings.