Gunman kills hostage, self at NASA center - Space News - MSNBC.com

Gunman kills hostage, self at NASA center - Space News - MSNBC.com

Gunman kills hostage, self at NASA center
One other hostage found alive at Johnson Space Center building
By Monica Rhor
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:18 p.m. ET April 20, 2007

HOUSTON - A NASA contract worker armed with a handgun killed a hostage and then himself after a nearly four-hour standoff Friday in an office building at Johnson Space Center, Houston police said.

The slain hostage, a man, was shot in the chest and was likely to have been shot "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal," Police Capt. Dwayne Ready said. Initial reports indicated two shots were fired at about 1:40 p.m. CDT and another shot was heard about 5 p.m.

A second hostage, a woman, escaped after being bound to a chair with duct tape, Ready said.

The gunman, an employee of Jacobs Engineering of Pasadena, Calif., 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, Ready said. The gun was a snub-nosed revolver, either .38 or .357-caliber, Ready said.

Authorities did not identify any of those involved in the ordeal. However, co-workers told MSNBC.com on condition of anonymity that the gunman was long considered an office hothead. He did not work at Building 44, but rather at a nearby office building, they said.

A NASA spokesman said the agency would likely review its security. "Any organization would take a good, hard look at the kind of review process we have with people," Doug Peterson said.

To enter NASA, workers flash an ID badge as they drive past a security guard. The badge allows the workers access to designated buildings.

Building 44 was evacuated shortly after gunshots were heard, and SWAT officers surrounded the building, which houses communications and a tracking development laboratory.

Ready described the gunman as being between 50 and 60 years old. He declined to speculate on what the man's motive might have been, but based on the reports from co-workers, the motive may have been work-related.

The gunman was an employee of Jacobs Engineering, which has an engineering technical support contract with NASA, said Jacobs executive vice president John Prosser. "We understand it is one of our employees," Prosser said. "Beyond that, we have no comment."

Police were unable to talk to the gunman during the ordeal, despite repeated attempts to reach him.

NASA employees and contract workers were kept informed of the situation by e-mail, including the first one which began, "We have a report of a weapon in Building 44."

Roads within the 1,600-acre campus were blocked off. A nearby middle school also kept its teachers and students inside as the school day ended, but reopened to allow students to leave.

President Bush was informed about the incident by counselor Dan Bartlett as he flew back to Washington from an event in Michigan, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. The White House was getting regular updates from NASA, she said, with Bush's top homeland security aide monitoring it.

Another 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 is not near Mission Control.

He declined to speculate on how a person would get a gun inside NASA security.

Doors to Mission Control were locked as is standard procedure.

NASA Director of External Relations Eileen Hawley said NASA would study the situation when it was defused to see if any policies needed to be changed.

Ready said the FBI would join the investigation because it is a federal facility.

"Everybody I've seen is shocked that something like this would happen here. It's almost a collegial environment," Peterson said.

Associated Press Writers Rasha Madkour and Mike Graczyk in Houston; Jennifer Loven in Washington, D.C., and Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this report. This report also was supplemented with information from NBC News space analyst James Oberg in Houston.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18233965/