The Big One

[99silveradoz71]

Came inside this afternoon and heard about this, and it's still going on at this time(7:30pm).  The city I work for borders Cleveland to the west...

 

Man in Camouflage Opens Fire at University; Two Injured

(5/9/03 - Cleveland) — A man in camouflage opened fire with a high-powered gun Friday at the business school at Case Western Reserve University. At least two people were reported injured. Witnesses said the gunman was firing indiscriminately. "He had a machine gun, book bag, camouflage shirt, military green hat, white pants and a book bag," LeKisha Spencer, 28, who works in a first-floor cafeteria. "I didn't see his face. "He was just walking, aiming his guns and firing."

 

The gunman remained in the Peter B. Lewis Building hours after the shooting began at 4 p.m. Police squad cars surrounded the block, and officers appealed to the man to call a designated police phone number. "We're very hopeful we can bring this to an end," city police Chief Edward Lohn said. No gunfire had been heard since about 4:30 p.m. Witnesses said the man was firing a machine gun. Police, moving reporters away from the building, said it was a high-powered rifle.

 

Dick Bennett, director of development for the Weatherhead School of Management, was locked in a third-floor room with eight other faculty members. He said he believed there were 40 to 50 people in the building but few students because finals were completed last week. One person had been shot outside and was taken to a hospital, said school spokeswoman Marcie Hersh. The other wounded person remained inside the building.

 

Joyce Persaud, a spokeswoman at Huron Hospital, said only that a male had been taken to the hospital. Sachin Goel, 26, a master's student from India, said he was talking with two friends on the first floor outside the cafeteria when the gunman approached and shot one of his friends. "My friend said he would give me a ride home and then I heard him shouting. I heard gunshots," he said. His friend screamed as he was shot. Goel and his other friend dove under a table and the gunman fired at them. "But he couldn't get us. And then he again shot as and we turned the table and put it in front of us," Goel said.

 

Bonnie Copes, an administrative assistant, said she heard several gunshots beginning around 4 p.m. Copes, 50, was locked in a department office inside the building and unable to leave. She continued to hear gunshots. "Rounds and rounds and rounds," she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. Albert DiFranco, 26, an assistant alumni director, said he was returning to his first-floor office from the bathroom when he saw drops of blood and broken glass on the floor outside his door. Then people shouted down from a second-floor mezzanine for him to get out. "I ran out," he said. "People were saying, 'Go go go!' I got down to the ground."

 

DiFranco was searching the University Circle area for a co-worker. He wasn't sure if she got out of the building. The $62 million Peter B. Lewis Building opened in the fall and was designed by Frank Gehry, the internationally renowned architect who also created the titanium-covered Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain. Case Western is at University Circle, a park-like setting of cultural, medical and educational institutions on the eastern edge of downtown. There are 1,600 students in the business school and a total of 9,500 at Case.

 

Because of the shooting, the Cleveland Orchestra, which performs in nearby Severance Hall, postponed until Sunday its Friday performance featuring pianist Mitsuko Uchida. The Lewis building is about five stories high. Instead of walls on the south side, it has a curving roof, made of 20,000 stainless-steel shingles, that seemingly tumbles to the ground. Lewis, an art collector and the billionaire chairman of Progressive Insurance, gave Case $37 million toward construction of the building, which opened in the fall.

[99silveradoz71]

Forgot to mention there are 47 people believed to still be inside the building.  Also, this building has secured doors requiring keycards for entry.  Apparently this guy walked up and broke the glass on a door or window to gain entry.  The local news was shooting video of the scene, but was eventually instructed not to, so as to not give the gunman a view of the police outside....

 

www.fox8cleveland.com

www.newsnet5.com

Channel 5 link

[99silveradoz71]

1 male taken to Huron Rd. Hospital with a gunshot wound to the buttocks, and 2 females just taken from the scene as well.

[99silveradoz71]

Channel 19 Action News just indicated that the police have no confirmed 2 dead...there are as many as 47 people still believed to be hiding inside their offices/classrooms.

[99silveradoz71]

The chief is now making a statement...building is 5 floors, with an atrium and no right angles.  The swat teams are now inside doing a room by room search.

[99silveradoz71]

Apparently the pd knows where he is, and gunfire has been exchanged, but the suspect has not been taken down.

[99silveradoz71]

1058p, male suspect captured...not sure if he's alive or dead.

[99silveradoz71]

male in his 50's.  Armed with a tec-9, had a vest, and a wig.  I talked to a friend I had been trying to reach all afternoon that works at Case.  She was in the building across the street and was due to have a dinner meeting at 4:30 in the Lewis building.  Said she heard the gunfire.  Talk about too close for comfort.

[cowboy02]

And they wonder why THere is weird gun laws.  95% of the people that have guns are very safe and carefull with there firearms.. It's the other 5% that are hosing it for everyone..