Apr 20, 2007 8:23 pm US/Central
Gunman Kills 1, Self At Johnson Space Center
HOUSTON (CBS) ―
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Police respond to a report of a gunman holed up Building 44 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, April 20, 2007.
CBS
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A gunman was reported in Building 44 of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, April 20, 2007.
CBS
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Houston, Johnson Space Center locator map from AP.
AP
A NASA contract worker armed with a handgun killed a hostage and then himself after today a nearly four-hour standoff in an office building at Johnson Space Center.
A second hostage, a woman, escaped with minor injuries after being bound to a chair with duct tape, police said.
The gunman was identified as an employee of Jacobs Engineering of Pasadena, California.
Police say he shot himself once in the head more than three hours after barricading himself on the second floor of Building 44, which houses communications and tracking development lab.
Authorities said the slain hostage, a man, was likely to have been shot "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal."
None of those involved were immediately identified.
"All of us at NASA are profoundly saddened by today's tragedy at the Johnson Space Center in Houston," NASA administrator Michael Griffin said in a written statement. "Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and all those touched by today's events."
Capt. Dwayne Ready said authorities did not know the gunman's motive, but described him as a white male between 50 and 60 years old.
A source inside JSC told CBS Station KHOU that a meeting was under way in a conference room when the gunman walked in and pointed a gun at one person. He ordered everyone else out.
Witnesses reported two shots had been fired.
There are unconfirmed reports that the man was going to be fired on Friday.
Police commando unit officers had surrounded Building 44, which houses communications and a laboratory, after receiving reports of the gunman around 1:40p.m. Roads within the 1,600-acre campus were blocked off. A nearby middle school also kept its teachers and students inside as classes ended.
Space Center Intermediate, a Clear Lake ISD school on the NASA property, was also placed on lockdown as a precaution.
After failing to establish communication with the intruder, police heard another shot from inside the office on the second floor where the gunman was holed up. They found the suspect dead with a self-inflicted wound to the head.
NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said the building was "one of the smaller" office buildings on the JSC campus, where Mission Control is based. Building 44, just north of Rocket Park, is used to test communication equipment for the space shuttle and International Space Station. There are several labs inside.
He declined to speculate on how the person got a gun inside NASA security or his motives.
Michael Zolensky, who studies cosmic dust at the space center, said workers were gathered around a television watching news reports of the situation.
About two hours after the shooting, NASA employees were told to go home.
Pictures broadcast from KHOU showed more than 15 police cars outside the building.
Building 44 is about a quarter of a mile away from Mission Control.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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