In gunban California? How could this happen?!


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Topic: Politics > Politics-USA
User: "Lady Libertarian"
Date: 17 Mar 2006 05:13:29 PM
Object: In gunban California? How could this happen?!
Another Victim Disarmament Zone shooting?
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/141
16801.htm_
Pismo Beach terror: 'I got three dead people ... at my feet '
Associated Press
PISMO BEACH, Calif. - "I need help at Denny's on Fourth Street."
The simple request from a woman to a 911 dispatcher was followed
by a horrifying account.
"It looks like there's three dead people laying. My husband's
one. Somebody come in shooting with a gun."
The call was among several to 911 after a transient with two guns
walked into a Central Coast Denny's restaurant at lunchtime
Wednesday, shot two men dead, wounded a husband and wife, and
committed suicide.
Slain were Frank Velasquez, 64, of Oceano, and Harold Hatley, 73,
of Grover Beach.
A surveillance video showed Hatley left his seat at the counter
and tried to stop the shooter. That allowed other people to flee,
and police credited Hatley with saving at least one life.
"Like many brave soldiers and peace officers, Mr. Hatley was
walking toward trouble rather than away from it," Police Chief
Joe Cortez said Thursday.
The shooter, Lawrence Edward Woods, 60, who was living in his
car, remained a mystery. Investigators combed through letters and
a storage locker belonging to him, and they learned he had a
narcotics conviction and as a felon should not have possessed the
two guns he took to the restaurant or two others found among his
belongings.
Police described Woods as a confrontational, paranoid person, but
had yet to uncover his motive.
"We know a little bit more than we did yesterday, but we still
don't know everything," Cmdr. Jeff Norton said.
Witnesses reported that Woods said, "It's all Mid-State Bank's
fault," after he shot Velasquez. But the bank said in a statement
that it believed Woods was never a customer and hadn't visited
any of its offices.
If the reason for the rampage remained elusive, the scope of the
terror it unleashed was not.
The 911 calls recorded anguish, confusion and fear.
The woman caller was apparently Velasquez's wife, LaVina. Family
members said the couple were having lunch with their 5-year-old
great-granddaughter when Woods walked in.
The woman quickly told the dispatcher that the gunman shot
himself, three people were "down" and there was no one else with
a gun. She then comforted the whimpering child and called out to
her husband.
"It's OK honey, somebody's gonna come now. Oh, grandpa! Oh,
grandpa? Oh, it's all right baby. It's going to be OK. It hurt
your ears so bad didn't it?"
Suddenly the dispatcher came back on the line and asked the woman
if she was still in the restaurant.
"Yes I am," she replied.
"Are you in a safe area, ma'am?" the dispatcher asked.
"I don't know. I got three dead people looks like in here at my
feet with my little daughter. My husband's one of them. I'm not
leaving him. No I'm not in a safe area," the caller said.
"Your husband is shot?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yes, three people are laying here on the floor. A man came in
and started shooting, and everybody in the restaurant - I can't
find nobody."
The dispatcher warned the woman to not walk around, but wait for
help.
Finally, the woman said, "Here comes the police. They're coming
in. Here, baby, see, right here. It's OK. She's so scared ... I
think the police are outside but they're cautious. Hold my hand.
I think my husband's dead."
Another caller told 911 that someone had been shot and struggled
to say where the victim was.
"There's one straight in front of me. He's shot in the back. Just
get someone here now!" the caller said.
Later, the caller was heard speaking to others at the scene.
"Oh my God ... what happened? God, Oh my God. Susan, are you OK?
Is everybody gone out of the restaurant?" the caller said amid
gasps. "He just started shooting. Where ... are the police? ...
Children stay back here! Stay away from the window!"
Another call recorded the restaurant manager, who identified
himself as Matt Cooper, pleading for help.
"Why is it taking so long?" he demanded in a call that recorded
fragmented frantic remarks at the scene.
At one point the dispatcher sought to calm him down, urging him
to take a deep breath.
"Do you know any of the people that are involved?" the dispatcher
asked.
"No I don't," he said. "I was in the office. All I heard was the
gunshots. My employee said to run, to run out the back door. It
was probably one, two, three, probably four or five shots."
The wounded couple, Joe Mejia, 58, and his wife, Alice, 59, were
released from a hospital late Wednesday after being treated for
gunshot wounds to the buttocks.
--
Lady Libertarian - United States of America
.

User: "Server 13"

Title: Re: In gunban California? How could this happen?! 17 Mar 2006 05:17:38 PM
Lady Libertarian wrote:

Another Victim Disarmament Zone shooting?

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/141
16801.htm_

Pismo Beach terror: 'I got three dead people ... at my feet '
Associated Press

PISMO BEACH, Calif. - "I need help at Denny's on Fourth Street."

The simple request from a woman to a 911 dispatcher was followed
by a horrifying account.

"It looks like there's three dead people laying. My husband's
one. Somebody come in shooting with a gun."

The call was among several to 911 after a transient with two guns
walked into a Central Coast Denny's restaurant at lunchtime
Wednesday, shot two men dead, wounded a husband and wife, and
committed suicide.

Slain were Frank Velasquez, 64, of Oceano, and Harold Hatley, 73,
of Grover Beach.

A surveillance video showed Hatley left his seat at the counter
and tried to stop the shooter. That allowed other people to flee,
and police credited Hatley with saving at least one life.

"Like many brave soldiers and peace officers, Mr. Hatley was
walking toward trouble rather than away from it," Police Chief
Joe Cortez said Thursday.

The shooter, Lawrence Edward Woods, 60, who was living in his
car, remained a mystery. Investigators combed through letters and
a storage locker belonging to him, and they learned he had a
narcotics conviction and as a felon should not have possessed the
two guns he took to the restaurant or two others found among his
belongings.

Exactly. Looks like a nutbag armament zone to me.
.


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