Gunman Kills Hostage, Self
The gunman who entered building 44 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston has killed one hostage and taken his own life. The man was apparently an employee of a contracting company that worked at the facility. There are rumors that the man was supposed to be fired today. That is still unconfirmed at this hour.
A gunman who took two hostages inside building 44 at JSC killed one of them, then took his own life Friday afternoon.
A second hostage, a woman, escaped after being bound to a chair with duct tape, Ready said.
She was taken to an area hospital by ambulance but was walking on her own when she came out of the building.
HPD hostage negotiators were trying to establish communication just after 5 p.m. when they heard the gunshot. They found the gunman dead of a gunshot to the head inside a room on the second floor.
"Also on the same floor there was one other hostage that was shot. We believe that may have occurred during the early minutes of this ordeal," said HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready.
The male victim had been shot in the chest.
The gunman and his victim's name have not been released.
Jacobs Engineering, a NASA contractor that has a $1.5 billion contract for technical support, confirmed that the gunman is one of its employees.
I'll update when more is known.
By Quilly Mammoth, April 20, 2007 @ 5:38 pm
I figured it had to be an inside job. From personal experience I can tell you that JSC is pretty hard to get into.
And I can’t help wondering if this person was inspired by Cho. Older man getting sacked figures his only way to make a mark is to kill someone at JSC.