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| -Short Attention Span Theater- | |||||
| Man shoots, misses recruiter, kills self in beef with USAF | |||||
| 2004-07-01 | |||||
EFL: A 42-year-old Hayward man with an apparent grudge against the U.S. Air Force walked into a recruiting office Wednesday, shot several times at a recruiter, then killed himself with a bullet to the head. Lt. Steve Pricco said the male recruiter narrowly escaped multiple rounds fired at him by the assailant. "He was very lucky," Pricco said.
Pricco said many questions remained unanswered Wednesday, but a preliminary investigation indicated the gunman walked into the Air Force recruiting office at 1:37 p.m. The man approached a lone Air Force recruiter who was sitting at a desk, working on a laptop. "The suspect mumbled something unintelligible, pulled out a revolver and fired at the recruiter at very close range," Pricco said. One bullet struck the laptop screen, shattering it and sending shards of glass into the recruiter's face.
As the recruiter retreated from the gunfire, the gunman shot at him at least twice more, Pricco said. The recruiter, who suffered some nicks to his face and neck from the destroyed laptop, escaped serious injury. Moments after opening fire on the recruiter, the gunman pointed the revolver toward his own head and fired. He died in the office, just inside the front doors. Pricco said the gunman had left a note on the pavement in front of the recruiting office. While he would not divulge its contents, Pricco said the note indicated that the man had specifically targeted the U.S. Air Force office. The note, handwritten and consisting of about four or five lines, also apparently mentioned several people by name and rank.
"This does not appear to be random, based on the contents of the note," Pricco said, declining to elaborate. He also said the man had written something on the revolver with white marker that further indicated that he was targeting the Air Force. It was unknown what connection, if any, the gunman may have had to the military.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #18 Raj/Doc - been out the last month on leave. Moving the wife and kid from S.C. back to Lejeune, I won't deploy until next year (so they tell me) ;) |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-07-01 10:23:04 PM |
| #17 Geez Mike, I thought I detected a little condescension from the recruiter when I looked into joining the Army after 9/11. I'm sane, reasonably fit, well educated, blah, blah, blah but was four years too old. I think this young woman had seen her share already of "9/11 patriots" (she said a lot of guys in my situation--"old",married, kids, but pissed off with terrorists--had been in). I guess I never considered she probably had a lot of psychos to deal with then as well. I swear I'm not psycho--I just wanted to kill jihadis. Is that so wrong? ; ) |
| Posted by: JDB 2004-07-01 8:23:35 PM |
| #16 ...FWIW - the Akron cops later told me that there was no evidence she'd ever even left the Akron city limits, and her telephone records showed nothing other than local calls. Of course, those Canadians ARE fiendishly clever.... Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-07-01 8:17:20 PM |
| #15 Cyber Sarge, the first sign that the Canadians are coming will be the Canada Geese. We always send them as the spearhead of an invasion. Look for them this fall... |
| Posted by: Patrick 2004-07-01 6:09:19 PM |
| #14 Mike, I bet we find out the Canadians are behind this shooting as well! FYI someone left a Canadian Quarter in our snack fund last week! And last night I saw a Canadian baseball team on the TV. And finally I saw a vehicle with Canadian license plates at a gas station on I-5. I tell you I'm getting a little nervous. I mean what if they force us to learn FRENCH! ARGH! BLAME CANADA, BLAME CANADA! REMEMBER THE WAR OR 1812! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-07-01 5:42:42 PM |
| #13 What would Brian Boytono do? Blame Canada! Oh Blame Canada! |
| Posted by: AllahHateMe 2004-07-01 4:58:49 PM |
| #12 Mike, why would you ever leave a fun job like that? This dodo from Hayward reminds me of a story an AF training NCO once told me: A recruit was on barracks guard and decided to hang himself. He tied a bedsheet around the rafter and the other end around his neck. He waited on top of a footlocker until the TI came through the door and then he jumped off. But the sheet was too long so he came to no harm. That is until the NCO got in his face shouting "damn you airman can't you do anything right?" Glad that the recruiter's encounter was with an equally incompetant moron. |
| Posted by: GK 2004-07-01 4:24:34 PM |
| #11 Damn, Mike - your life is a LOT more interesting than mine! Shipman - LOL. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-07-01 4:23:36 PM |
| #10 Damn Mike! What stories! Write a book! BTW just to finish the tale.... Were the Canadians after her? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-01 4:11:19 PM |
| #9 Okay, full disclosure - I recruited for the USAF from Sept 89 to Aug 93, and let me assure you: easily 25% of the people who walk into a recruiter's office are out of their f**king minds. I had: *A man who came in carrying a baseball bat insisting that I had to drive him from Akron OH to Washington DC to tell the FBI about an alien plot on President Bush(41) *A woman who had a 200+ page handwritten letter to the White House demanding a private 1-800 number to the President. *A man who was easily 400 lbs - and could only get through the office door with great difficulty - demanding to be made an officer at once, and with a guaranteed job as a pilot. *The best(and weirdest) of all: A woman (6'6" and easily 300 lbs) who kept coming in and asking if she could join. Of course, I always had to tell her no. Well, one day she comes charging in and drops a pile of blueprints - about a foot high - on my desk and says if I don't get her in, she's sending the other copy of these to the Canadians. She then storms out. I open up the blue prints - they are (and I kid you NOT) the main USAF Civil Engineer blueprints for almost every building at Wright Patterson AFB, OH - a major R&D and logistics base. Needless to say, I am on the phone to the leadership within a few minutes, tell them the story and am told if she ever shows up again, I'm to stall her and call them at ONCE. Fast forward about a week later. There's a knock at the office door, and two Akron PD detectives are standing there. They tell me that my friend with the blueprints did a header that morning off the Route 8 bridge - 300 ft over the Cuyahoga Valley and (literally)went through the roof of a factory under the bridge. My business card was the only thing in her pocket besides her ID and welfare card. Before she jumped, she was screaming ...something about the Canadians being after her. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-07-01 4:02:11 PM |
| #8 I bet he was a peacenik. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-07-01 3:18:44 PM |
| #7 Jarhead! Welcome back to RB! I was getting worried - long time no read. |
| Posted by: Doc8404 2004-07-01 2:29:03 PM |
| #6 Jarhead! How's it going? Back from your deployment already? |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-07-01 1:35:40 PM |
| #5 "Give the psycho credit. He didn't miss when it counted." -too bad that shot wasn't his first. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2004-07-01 1:16:10 PM |
| #4 Air base nearby? I'm guessing... pregnant daughter. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-07-01 1:12:35 PM |
| #3 Give the psycho credit. He didn't miss when it counted. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-07-01 12:31:51 PM |
| #2 Soldier, clean up that mess and get this office operational innediately. We have men to recruit and we require a clean, brain and skull fragment-free office in which to do so. |
| Posted by: Chris W. 2004-07-01 12:28:16 PM |
| #1 Three close shots and never hit the guy? Now I know we Air Force types are not the best shots, but I can hit something at close range at least once out of three. I bet this guy was tossed or denied re-elistment for mental reasons. Wonder who is on the list? FYI I am GLAD that the recruiter is fine not disappointed. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2004-07-01 12:24:21 PM |