Man in custody after firing shots at Texas Capitol

[derby378]

Source: Washington Post

A man fired several shots into the air Thursday while standing on the Texas Capitol's south steps before throwing down his handgun as state troopers closed in and tackled him, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

Nobody was wounded in the shooting, department spokesman Tom Vinger said. The 24-year-old suspect from the Houston area was taken to the Travis County Jail and faces felony charges of deadly conduct, Vinger said. His name wasn't immediately released.

The shots rang out just after noon, and officers with rifles quickly swarmed the scene. More than a half dozen Department of Public Safety cars quickly appeared, and troopers quickly surrounded the building. The Capitol was on lockdown as officials searched as a precaution.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012102642.html

[Richardo]

1. I've got an alibi

I've been here in my cube all day I swear.

[derby378]

2. Same here - and I don't even own a pistol

Wasn't me, Officer, I didn't do nothin' to nobody...

[jobycom]

3. Texas. We're like a whole nuther reality.

:rofl:

I remember once on UT's campus getting out of my car near sunset and hearing a shotgun blast. Remember, this is the same campus where Charles Whitman shot 46 people (killed 14) from the tower. I jumped about six feet in the air. No one else even flinched. I looked for the shooter, and saw a large man in a heavy jacket carrying a monster of a shotgun down the street, eyes darting left and right, then up.

While I watched he raised the shotgun, pointed it roughly at a 45 degree angle into the air, and fired again. A couple of people walking near him covered their ears, but nothing else.

After a moment the Twilight Zone affect wore off, and I realized what he was doing. He was scaring the grackles out of the trees. Just an employee doing his job. :rofl:

Yeah, not related to this incident. Sue me. :)

[nolabear]

10. Sing it with me now!

The stars at night
are big and bright
(Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!)
Deep in the heart of Texas!!!!

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Maybe a right to carry a weapon in public, but not to shoot it.

[provis99]

5. Texas is different

If you don't like someone shooting, just jump out of the way of the bullets...

[winyanstaz]

6. Sounds like the first shot............

People are fed up.
I am afraid there will be a lot more of this.
I am not for it...but I can see it is what is happening.

[PJPhreak]

7. Sounds to me like...

Someone is just "Keepin Ausitn Weird"

[slampoet]

8. Was it this guy?

[slackmaster]

9. Sounds like a cry for help

Texas style.

[Bragi]

11. Isn't that legal in Texas? /nt

[ashling]

12. Don't Tread on . . . just excercisin' those gun rights

dontcha know.

[Quasimodem]

13. Did anyone notice.

Did he happen to say "Yeehaw!"

[depakid]

14. Here's our latest winner:

The man apparently had just visited the Capitol office of Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.

The man was "acting in a way that made my staff concerned," Patrick wrote on his Facebook page.

"He left and and a few minutes later several shots were reportedly fired," Patrick wrote.

Logan Spence, Patrick's chief of staff, said a man dressed in a white T-shirt, blue jeans and a bulky leather jacket came into Patrick's third-floor office and said he wanted to speak to "the girl in the white shirt."

Spence said the staffer wearing a white shirt came out to see him.

"He says he wants to go meet with her privately, in Dan's office. And she said, `No, let's just talk here, what can I do for you?''' Spence said. After the two went back and forth for a while, Spence said, "He said, `OK, I'll talk to you later then.' And left."

He said the staffer did not know the man.

Spence said he informed the DPS office of the man's behavior and asked that troopers talk to him.

He said he then saw "troopers running around and whistles going off" and he ran into a nearby office to look outside "and that guy is getting tackled by troopers."

Spence said the man spoke "broken English" and was difficult to understand. He said the man was a "clean-shaven, very nondescript kind of guy'' with blonde-brown hair.

Capitol security remains an ongoing concern, Patrick said.

More: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6828450.html

[Paladin]

15. It Would Figure That Dipshit Dan Patrick Was Involved In This.

I'm surprised Patrick didn't give this guy an extra box of ammo to use......

[No Elephants]

16. Is shooting into the air illegal?

[stlsaxman]

17. Of course it's legal- those police were trampling on his freedom of speech.

:eyes: