Man Kills Self, Hostage at NASA Building

[WMR]

HOUSTON (April 20) - A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries.

The gunman shot himself once in the head more than three hours after barricading himself on the second floor of Building 44, which houses a laboratory.

The slain hostage was probably killed "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal," Houston Police Capt. Dwayne Ready said.

None of those involved were immediately identified.

The man was believed to be an employee of Jacobs Engineering, which has a technical support contract with NASA.

"We understand it is one of our employees," said John Prosser, the company's executive vice president.

Roads within the 1,600-acre (648-hectare) campus were blocked off during the confrontation. A nearby middle school also kept its teachers and students inside as classes ended.

NASA employees and contract workers were kept informed of the situation by e-mail.

Christine Reichert, space station flight controller at the space center, said employees were initially told to stay in their buildings. That restriction was lifted a few hours later.

Michael Zolensky, who studies cosmic dust at the space center, said workers were gathered around a television watching news reports of the situation.

Doors to Mission Control were locked as standard procedure.

President Bush was informed about the gunman as he flew back to Washington from an event in Michigan, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

[WMR]

[KronoRed]

Wow

[jmcclain19]

This particular week on the calendar sucks every year because of nonsense like this. I dread it - seems like something awful seems to happen every couple of years.

Columbine, Oklahoma City, Waco, Virgina Tech all immediately spring to mind.

[RFS62]

This particular week on the calendar sucks every year because of nonsense like this. I dread it - seems like something awful seems to happen every couple of years.

Columbine, Oklahoma City, Waco, Virgina Tech all immediately spring to mind.

Interesting. Never made that connection.

[zombielady]

This particular week on the calendar sucks every year because of nonsense like this. I dread it - seems like something awful seems to happen every couple of years.

Columbine, Oklahoma City, Waco, Virgina Tech all immediately spring to mind.

They all also seem to coincide with a relapse into winter weather after almost a month of warm spring weather.

[rotnoid]

It's also Hitler's birthday today. I wonder if a lot of these wackos are paying homage... ???

[GAC]

If anything good can come of these tragedies over the past week, maybe it should be a greater awareness and involvement in mental health issues in this country. Many years ago there were investigations into, and resultant legislation inacted, to address the abuses going on in many mental health facilities. And rightly so. But in protecting the rights and privacy of people with serious mental health problems have we "swung the pendelum" too much the other way? And I'm referring to treating people with obvious and very serious mental health problems, where warning signs and red flags are going off all over the place, as "out patient", meaning, releasing them into society while relying on/depending on these individuals to get the help/treatment they need on a voluntary basis, when it's obvious most aren't capable and responsible enough to do so.

Now it's obvious that very little can be down when an individual doesn't show such signs, and out of the blue, and for whatever reason, comes unhinged and does something like this.

I've got a cousin, much younger then me, who has struggled with serious mental health problems for years. When here lived here in the area with his Mom he was a very, very troubled young man. He would pace around the home all day, sit in front of the TV and rock back and forth, and go into ramblings abut the people in the TV talking to him. He was taken to see various medical/psychiatric experts who diagnosed his severe emotional problems. But all that was done was prescribing him various medications. One was Prozac. The problem? He won't take the medicine or stay on them because of the side effects and what it did to him. Even though it did help. His Mom, as well as many of us, were really concerned about him. She was frantic. But he was an adult, so what can anyone do? She couldn't afford to have him institutionalized. So we expect these individuals to take care of themselves, take their medication, and that is all that we CAN do?

Then when they really become unhinged which may lead them to do something tragic, we are asking the question "Why?" and are looking for answers?