Two New Hope police recruits were at the City Council meeting being sworn in. They left the City Council room, and in the lobby outside the room, police in the lobby fired on by a man wielding a rifle or other sort of long gun. Police officers returned fire and killed that man. Two police officers were hit, are in hospital, no one else was killed.

There are a number of unknowns at this point such as were the recruits the cops that were hit? Who was the perp and why did he do that? These questions will be cleared up in due course, I’m sure.

But there are two other questions that I have. First, why was city council member John Elder packing a handgun? In this photograph from the scene, he is seen holding his pistol:

So, my first question is, why is a New Hope City Council member packing a gun at the meeting?

My second question pertains to something John Elder says during the incident. He is seen holding his gun, pointing it towards the doors leading to the lobby, in a shooter’s stance. During this time he instructs the technicians to turn off the cameras. The way he says it is a bit odd; he tells them to “go to a commercial.” I assume the meeting is being shown on public access TV (for once, some excitement on public access TV!) and he may simply be interested in protecting the public from seeing something gruesome. And that may be good. But it also was an elected member of the government carrying a gun in what I assume is a no-carry zone (that needs to be verified) trying to limit evidence of that act.

The third question I (and everyone) has is this: How do you get a long gun in a city hall?

I should note that Elder is a former policeman, and his having the gun in the city hall may have been entirely appropriate. Also, if someone is going to have a gun in a situation like this, I’d rather have it be a sworn officer of the law, or someone like Elder, who has law enforcement experience. Had this incident moved into the council room, he would have been able to put a stop to it, perhaps. So, please understand, these are questions I’m asking, not accusations I’m making (people get very touchy about guns).

I’m reminded of a wedding I went to years ago in Arkansas. The wedding was officiated by a federal judge in a federal courtroom. An assistant to the judge is who was getting married, and they decided to do it this way, with just a few family members. (I was a family member.) We all went to the court house after hours, with the judge and the soon to be wedded couple. When we got to the security check, we all simply walked around it, judge leading, and headed back to his courtroom. This was a few months after 9/11 when security was tight in all federal facilities, already tightened earlier after the Oklahoma City bombing. But it was an example of how security can become suddenly very lax under certain conditions.

Personally, I’m very annoyed at all the extra security, but it seems that only minimal security could have kept a rifle out of the city hall!

The Star Tribune has the story.

There has been a lot of confusion in details, partly because of the usual blinding incompetence of anyone major news networks deem worthy of putting in front of a camera, partly because the press conference at a hospital will not cover information about those transported to other hospitals or directly to a morgue, and partly because of the high tolerance of those delivering and watching the news to inaccuracy. There is really no other reason for the basic facts to be so incorrect for so long at a highly secured crime scene.

Anyway, the following appears to be pretty accurate, though the exact number wounded remains a bit of a guess.

Suspected Shooter: Jared Lee Loughner
Second Suspected Suspect: Unidentified white male
Weapon: 9mm Glock Model 19 handgun with a 30-round magazine

Killed (6):

-John Roll, 63, a federal district court judge.
-Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, Giffords’ director of community outreach
-Dorwin Stoddard, 76, a pastor at Mountain Ave. Church of Christ.
-Christina Greene, 9, a student at Mesa Verde Elementary
-Dorothy Morris, 76
-Phyllis Schneck, 79

Wounded:
1) U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona
2-14) Unidentified UPDATED: two more than yesterday claimed to be wounded

UPDATE: Giffords is out of surgery but in critical condition. Six were killed. Some information about the shooter is becoming available: Jared Lee Loughner. He had a YouTube channel (see quote below) clearly indicating a very disturbed individual with leanings pretty much as one might expect.

Reporters are, right or wrong (who knows?) using the phrase “bullet through the brain” in relation to Gifford’s injuries. ADDED: The doctor at the hospital news conference states he is optimistic about the outcome. He states that the bullet went through and through, through her brain. He also mentioned that the one dead is a child (9 yrs old). (The number of dead, as usual, fluctuates up and down. Judge John Roll is also dead.)

From HuffPo:

Sarah Palin has posted a statement on Facebook in response to the Arizona shooting involving Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Palin writes:

“My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona.

On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.”

…

There is no evidence at this time that the shooting of Giffords was politically motivated, but it’s grimly ironic that the candidate appeared on a map of House Democrats “targeted” by Palin in 2010.

The map controversially used actual target markers on locations these Democrats lived and listed their names.

back to the original post…

We don’t know if this is Michel Bachmann’s Teabaggers shooting Democrats yet, but there are perfectly valid reasons to consider that possibility while investigating the horrific events unfolding as we speak in Arizona.

Representative Gabrielle Giffords, third term Democrat, has been shot in the head, and may or may not have died as of this writing, and several other shot and some killed, at an event in Tuscon.

Giffords, who was re-elected to a third term in November, was hosting a “Congress on Your Corner” event at a Safeway in northwest Tucson when a gunman ran up and started shooting, according to Peter Michaels, news director of Arizona Public Media.

The suspect fired indiscriminately from about four feet away, Michaels said. A congressional official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that the gunman was using an automatic weapon.

The suspect ran off and was tackled by a bystander. He was taken into custody. Witnesses described him as in his late teens or early 20s. Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities in Arizona are investigating the shooting.

Remember that the Congresswoman’s office was attacked violently by teabaggers during the election.

Anybody know anything else yet?

House Speaker John Boner made a statement about being horrified. Perhaps he should just shut up.

UPDATE: Final words on the shooter’s final video on his YouTube account:]

“In conclusion, reading the second United States Constitution, I can’t trust the current government because of the ratification: the government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controllin grammar.

No! I won’t pay debt… with a currency that’s not backed by gold and silver!

No! I won’t trust in God!”

Here’s one of his videos: