Gunman opens fire at NASA building in Houston

[mrs_pell]

WTH???

NASA evacuated a building at the Johnson Space Center in Houston after a person with a gun was seen and a shot was fired, a NASA spokeswoman said Friday. A SWAT team has been sent to the scene, a source told CNN. One report indicates the suspect has barricaded himself in a building. NASA spokesman James Hartfield told CNN gunshots were heard in the building. He added NASA security rules do not allow weapons on the property.

More at the link (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/20/nasa.gunfire/index.html)

From watching the news right now, it appears as if things are under control and the gunman is by himself on the 2nd floor.

[Liz]

Whoa. What is wrong with people?

[PookiePrincess]

Seriously, how does one get a gun into NASA?

I'm watching it on the news now and this is ongoing and they don't know much of anything yet other than the shooter is still in the building.

[Sophia]

I heard about this a few hours ago but was unable to post.

I don't know what's wrong with people.

[BlackMagicRose]

OMG!!! What is going on??????

[PookiePrincess]

They've said they have identified the shooter as 60 year old William Phillips Jr. He works for Jacob's Engineering as a contractor for NASA and reportedly this is a work related dispute.

They also just showed on the news some paramedics going up to the building with a stretcher. They said 2 shots were fired several hours ago but there have been more shots fired recently.

[Linz]

That's just great. At my husbands work there is a 60 year old man that just got fired who mentioned when he left that he has a gun. This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :( :confused: :rolleyes: :eek:

[PookiePrincess]

Okay, updated news.

He was holding two hostages. One hostage escaped, one has been killed and the shooter is also dead.

[BlackMagicRose]

Oh gosh Linz...I would not let me husband go to work!! I am so sorry. A threat like this can be very scary.

[Rose]

That is horrible. WTF is wrong with people?!?

[tgray99]

I dated a guy years and years ago that graduated from VT and works for NASA. I feel so bad for him.

[mrs_pell]

Yeah, so I started the thread, then fell asleep while watching the news (pain meds from my wisdom teeth knocked me out!!)! When I fell asleep it really seemed like everything was under control...then all of a sudden I wake up to find out he had killed someone and injured the other hostage! WTH!!??

[AHammer]

Oh this creeped me out so much. I have a good friend who works at JSC and he wasn't answers his phone today! But his away message on AIM now says: "Don't worry, I'm okay."

[Aimee]

My DH works at a Federal complex (another "space center") and hearing about this just terrifies me.

He told me a few days ago that the security fees for each badge would be increasing a really steep amount, because of some sort of Homeland Security initiative, as run by NASA. Given the whole astronaut with a B.B. gun and adult diaper incident a few months back, I remarked that NASA didn't exactly have the best track record.

What is it about April (VT, Columbine, OK City bombings, now this) that makes people lose it?

[MLA]

Happy Birthday, Hitler.

Seriously, all the loonies come out on April 20th -- or real near it.

This is so sad. :(

[phoenics]

I swear it's like little children - you know how they feed off of each other. One of them acts up and the others who see it start acting up. Crazy.

This guy was 60-years old? Lord.

[tgray99]

Think about it, these were the nerds in school. The kids typically picked last for sports...its a wonder more of them don't go off the deep end. The divorce rate out there is incredibly high.

[Tanya]

Think about it, these were the nerds in school. The kids typically picked last for sports...its a wonder more of them don't go off the deep end. The divorce rate out there is incredibly high.

The divorce rate among nerds is high?? Hmm, I haven't seen that;). I think engineers have one of the lowest divorce rates of any profession. Anyway, I work at JSC, and while it's very sad what happened, it's been completely sensationalized--I'm sure due to the other incidents. I really don't think his actions were spurred on by the VT shootings, because it seemed he planned this all out beforehand: The violence in Building 44 on the Johnson Space Center grounds was apparently prompted by an e-mail message that Phillips received last month from his employer, Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., describing problems with his work and offering suggestions on improvement.

Phillips printed that e-mail March 18, the same day he bought a .38-caliber revolver and 20 hollowpoint bullets thought to have been used in the shootings, police said. The e-mail was found in Phillips' lunch bag Friday. from here (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/4737119.html).

What's creepy is he went out to lunch with his victim just a short while earlier. He had nothing else in his life but work, and he just couldn't handle the supposed rejection.

There's just no way to stop someone from getting on site with a gun. They cannot feasibly search all cars. After 9-11 it was a nightmare trying to get into work. Certain areas could have metal detectors (i.e. MCC), but those areas already need security clearance to get into. The security gets higher around shuttle flights (seaching of bags into MCC), but when you think about it, that's pretty silly as there's a station (ISS) up there with Houston flight controller support 24-7.

And yes, the new badging system is pretty ridiculous: a redo of previous security work (I've had to fill out the same forms with references 3x since I started working here 7 years ago), and way too expensive and slow.

[philnikki]

Gosh, things like this just scare me so much...so husband is a Postmaster, and I just keep waiting for the day one of the loonies that he manages goes crazy, since apparently it happens a lot with the post office...still so crazy that it happened at NASA though :( So sad :(