Folks, breaking news from Texas, which we are covering here at TexasKaos.
I'll be brief with the details: It's a white male, and he's barricaded himself inside building 44 of Johnson Space Center. Early speculation from the Houston Chronicle indicated he may be a contract employee at JSC.
Click beneath the fold for more info....
update: I missed an earlier diary on this subject. Please give it a click, as it has additional info. I hate duplicating stuff, so if the majority of commenters recommends a delete here, I'm happy to oblige.
Ok, here is what we know at this point.
This started at about 1:45pm. At least two shots have been fired. The gunman has barricaded himself in, and SWAT is on the scene. They are unsure of which room he's in.
JSC is asking employees to go home and at this time this incident seems to be contained to bldg. 44.
Regarding bldg. 44:
Building 44 is a research and engineering building on a remote part of Johnson Space Center's sprawling campus, far from the Mission Control buildings.
SWAT also does not know whether this is a hostage situation, and they're trying to determine that at this time. They're moving in negotiators and lights, hoping to talk this guy out.
Here is an early report from the Houston Chronicle. I'll update this as more info becomes available.
update: Houston PD will be having a news conference shortly. Witnesses describe the man as a 50-60 year old white male. SWAT has still been unable to established phone contact w/the suspect, but they believe they know which office he is in now. They are treating this as a "highest hazard" situation, and hostage negotiators are on their way to the scene.
Update 2: An ambulance on scene is treating one wounded person. Reports now say that perhaps the gunman has committed suicide.
update 3: HPD's news conference has been cancelled. No new information is forthcoming at this time, but police have been seen entering the building. The assumption is, again, that he has suicided.
update4: Homicide and internal affairs of the Houston PD are on their way to the scene. Local Houston news media is more accurate than the nationals, and here is what they're reporting. It was a white male, contractor who worked for an engineering company. Employees were immediately notified and fled the building. Snipers were on the scene but not needed. Two shots were fired. HPD is now updating:
While HPD was trying to establish communications, they heard an additional gunshot. They thought suspect shot himself, so swat entered. One female hostage was injured and one male hostage has been killed. The suspect suicided. Currently unsure of the relationships between the gunman and his hostages.
And Congressman Lampson has released the following statement:
LAMPSON STATEMENT ON NASA
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER SITUATION
Houston, TX - Congressman Nick Lampson (D-Stafford) released the following statement:
"I am closely monitoring the potential situation at the Johnson Space Center from Houston. At this time I am receiving updates from my staff in both the Houston-area and Washington, who are in touch with NASA authorities to learn more about the facts of the situation."
Final update: One final note, because I know that I posted this at a time when this community's boards have been oversaturated with coverage about guns and death and other morbid shit. Here is the text of a comment I dropped in response to Rena saying she was glad she didn't see any diaries on this. I took no offense at what she said and can totally empathise considering what's been flooding this site lately. But here's what I told her. Maybe I need to just say it to everyone:
* [new] no offense taken rena (0 / 0)
i'll tell you why i posted on it.
first, johnson space center has thousands of employees, many who have friends and family all over texas. that's why we posted it at kaos, so that our readers would be aware of the situation. in fact, two of them commented almost immediately that they have family there.
we decided to cross post it here because there's a lot of texans on this board, and we felt they needed to be informed of the situation so they could ensure their loved one were safe.
that's what this is all about, and i hope it didn't come off as sensationalist. that certainly was not our intent. we just wanted to let everybody know what was going on and try to assuage peoples' worries for their friends and family at JSC.
And that's the bottom line, to me. The internet can be a tool for many things. The blog community in Texas is pretty damned tight knit and we reply on each other for information about all sorts of stuff. We're not all sitting in front of our televisions today, but many of us are connected via the internet. TexasKaos is blessed to have quite a few eyeballs regularly perusing our site, but DKos has Texans, too. We felt it important to notify the community.