Gunman opens fire on UT-Austin campus

[sonomak]

Source: Dallas Morning News

A male gunman opened fire and is believed to have committed suicide on the University of Texas campus this morning, a university spokesman confirmed.

"The shooter is dead on the sixth floor of the Perry-Castañeda Library," the main library on campus, said Don Hale, UT's vice president for public affairs. "He apparently took his own life, although that's not official yet," Hale said.

There were no reports of others being injured, said the spokesman, who said he had no information on the gunman's identity.

Students reported seeing a young man wearing business-style clothes and a mask walk into the library shortly before the shooting. A faculty or staff member approached him to ask if there were a reason he was dressed that way.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/092910dntexutshooter.139bcc736.html

[Roland99]

1. A tormented youth?

Glad no one else was injured. Was he actually trying to hit people? Good thing he was a poor shot then.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. They're hunting for a second suspect.

[leftynyc]

3. My nephew attends UT

He just called my sister - classes are cancelled and the campus is on lockdown.

[av8rdave]

5. Just heard from my son and his GF

He's a grad student there. They were on lockdown in his office, then got evacuated from there. They are both safely at her apartment off campus.

Glad you heard from your nephew and glad he's OK!

[leftynyc]

6. I read they were looking for a second gunman

Have you heard anything further on that? So glad you heard from your son - my sister hasn't stopped shaking.

[av8rdave]

19. I've been flying and away from the news for several hours

Apparently, the situation was resolved, but with the loss of a life.

[edbermac]

4. The ghost of Charles Whitman returns.

:scared:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman

[Downwinder]

13. Is the tower open?

[edbermac]

15. Yes, via Wiki:

"Following the Whitman incident, the observation deck was closed until 1968, and then closed again in 1975 following a series of suicide jumps during the 1970s. In 1998, after installation of security fencing and other safety precautions, the tower observation deck reopened to the public."

[Recursion]

7. Armed suspect fires shots, kills himself at University of Texas

Source: CNN

A suspected gunman fired shots inside a library at the University of Texas at Austin on Tuesday morning before shooting himself, university spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon told CNN.

The gunman died, Weldon said. No one else was hurt.

An ambulance was seen just before 9 a.m. in front of the Perry-Castaneda library, CNN affiliate KXAN reported. SWAT teams, armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the campus.

On its Facebook page, university police said they were searching for a possible second suspect. The identities of the suspects were not immediately known. Weldon said it was also not known whether the second suspect was armed.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/28/texas.university.shooting/?hpt=T2

---

How awful.

[uppityperson]

8. Glad no one else was hurt but the writing of this article is atrocious

"A suspected gunman fired shots". No, if someone fired a gun, then he WAS a gunman. Unless someone else fired the gun, making them the gunman.

"Armed suspect fires shots". What is he suspected of? Firing a gun? See above.

Hey you CNN writers, if someone shoots a gun, they are the shooter (insert "fire" for "shoot" if you want but that is another of those weasel words. "fire" involves combustion, "shoot" is much more of an active word and what happens when you pull the trigger of a gun). Someone who shoots a gun is not "suspected" but HAS shot a gun. I know that there are weasel qualifying words to be used during a crime since we are all innocent until proven guilty, but if someone shoots/fires a gun, they did. If you don't know WHO shot the gun, someone can be a suspect, but the person who DID shoot the gun DID shoot the gun. Unless, perchance, he dropped the gun and it went off, shooting the dropper.

rant over

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Armed suspect fires shots, kills himself at University of Texas

Source: CNN

The University of Texas at Austin was under a lockdown Tuesday morning after a suspected gunman wielding an AK-47 fired shots and then turned the gun on himself inside a campus library.

The gunman died, said Robert Dahlstrom, chief of staff in the Austin Police Department. No one else was injured.

Police were searching for a possible second suspect and checking campus buildings for possible explosives left behind, said Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/28/texas.university.shooting/index.html?hpt=T1

[ixion]

10. Remember in the Days of Ray-Gun all the office place shootings... and the phrase "Going Postal"

Seems like we're coming in for Round Two.

[merqz]

22. Here we go again. Screw crime statistics

Individual anecdotes PROVE differently.

[ixion]

23. and crime "statistics" are speculation at best

so what's your point?

[Bravo Zulu]

11. "then turned the gun on himself"

"The gunman died,No one else was injured." He did the right thing!

[mitchum]

12. Whitmanesque: Does this make him a classicist or a postmodernist?

[Downwinder]

14. Was he a marine?

[Pavulon]

20. I have never met a marine who could not hit a target with a rifle

I would be surprised by that if it were true. Thankfully no one was hit.

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. Neither

A postmodernist would float cream pies down from the Bell Tower on little parachutes in an act of ironic pastiche, remixing Charles Whitman and the Three Stooges in order to deconstruct the binary between repetition and difference.

A classicist would insist on using the exact same rifle type and ammunition as Whitman.

No. This guy was a modernist. His act highlighted the tension between tradition and the individual talent, while aiming to make it new. He cited in the tragic mode, Hemingway, Quentin Compson. Shots that ring out aimlessly in the library. Darkness. Victory.

[mitchum]

17. Nicely done!

[hack89]

24. Bravo! nt

[Javaman]

25. A friend of mine was in the next building over and heard the shot that

killed him.

[sonomak]

18. UPDATE: Shooter identified as Colton Tooley, 19, UT sophomore math major

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2010/09/28/police_on_scene_of_shooting_on.html

[proteus_lives]

21. At least he didn't hurt anyone else.