9-16-99 Wedgewood Baptist Church, Ft. Worth, TX Larry Gene Ashbrook, 47
8 dead, 7 wounded
Five months after Columbine, a man shot up a youth gathering at the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas, resulting in eight deaths, with seven more wounded. Blamed was lone gunman Larry Gene Ashbrook, 47, who comitted suicide, ending the spree. Coming so soon after Columbine, it rubbed salt in wounds that had not yet begun to heal.
The dead
Shawn Brown - 23 (male)
Susan Kimberly Jones - 23
Cassandra Griffin - 14
Joseph Ennis - 14
Justin Ray - 17
Sydney Browning - 36 (female)
Christie Beckel - 14
The Event
--Witnesses said the gunman, dressed in black, began shooting shortly after 7pm..
--witness: "He had on a black T-shirt and dark jeans"
--Witness Christy Martin told KDFW-TV. The man had long hair and a mustache, and wore a black jacket, jeans and a white T-shirt.
--He was smoking a cigarette in church. A janitor approached him about the cigarette, and the authorities say Mr. Ashbrook shot him. He shot a woman sitting nearby in the head. And then he followed the sounds of music and voices into the main sanctuary, where hundreds of teen-agers had gathered for a contemporary Christian music concert. He walked inside and began firing. Two home videos, which have been turned over to the police, caught the carnage....
--(Ft. Worth PD)Chief Mendoza said Mr. Ashbrook screamed insults about ''the Baptist religion'' during the shooting, but investigators had not yet discerned his motives. Mr. Ashbrook did not leave a suicide note or any written evidence of his intentions, the chief said. Mr. Ashbrook lived several miles from Wedgwood Baptist, and members of the church had no idea why he chose them as a target. ''He was saying, 'Your religion is nothing, it's not worth anything, it means nothing,' '' said Mary Beth Talley, 17, who was wounded.
--Two guns were found on the scene--9-millimeter Ruger and .380-caliber AMT. Ashbrook had legally purchased them from flea market back in 1992
--He pausing during the attack to reload, using three clips in all. Investigators later found six loaded 9mm clips in his jacket pocket.
Psychological Background
There is no doubt Ashbrook was an oddball, and appeared to be on a downward spiral:
--Neighbors of Mr. Ashbrook related a litany of his bizarre behavior. Some teen-agers said he was known as ''Crazy Larry.''
--Larry Ashbrook lived with his parents when he was a teen-ager attending Fort Worth's O.D. Wyatt High School, and he continued to live with his parents until their deaths.
Neighbors who watched him grow up say he became a troubled man.
"You could see it. He was always talking to himself," said Tim Walker, a neighbor. "He would be as close as you and I, and you could see him carrying on a conversation with himself."
--Neighbors said he rarely spoke to anyone. One neighbor said she knew when he was home because he always slammed doors shut and often kicked them open. She said she could hear the noise across the street. Other neighbors often heard him arguing with his father in whose house he lived.
The motive for the tragedy was generally blamed on mental illness, apparently based on his bizarre behavior and the diagnosis of his siblings who said Larry was a paranoid schizophrenic. Though interestingly he had no police record or evidence he had any contact with the local mental health system. The medical examiner claims he found no drugs in his system. Larry had spent about seven years in the Navy, where he was a sonar operator on a P-3 Orion plane that tracks and destroys enemy submarines. That does not sound like a position where someone who exhibited mental instability would have long been tolerated. As I have pointed out, generally speaking schizophrenia strikes people in their late teens or early twenties, so I am suspicious of any late blooming serious mental disorder.
Weeks before the attack, Ashbrook sent letters to a local paper, telling of strange encounters with the Central Intelligence Agency.
--In his letters, Mr. Ashbrook wrote of ''being targeted by some investigative group,'' and told of going to the Fort Worth office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ''An agent, I will not list his name here, invited me to sit in his office and he would hear what I had to say,'' Mr. Ashbrook wrote. ''The problem, though, is that he listened for about one minute, then stood up and told me that I would be contacted.'' Marjorie Poche, a special agent for the F.B.I. in Dallas, said that there was no record of Mr. Ashbrook's visit but that it would not likely have been logged anyway.
Though in many ways --age, anger issues, mental deterioration--Ashbrook does seem to fit the profile, in other ways the event itself is reminiscient of the 'Columbine-client.' For example, just like many of the students on 4/20 initially thought a video was being made, many of the people in the church thought they were witnessing "a skit meant to dramatize the shootings at Columbine High School only months earlier." (A few teens allegedly jumped up in the darkened sanctuary and shouted, "Shoot me, shoot me!")
And as usual the gunman left a trail:
--Police said they recovered evidence while searching the suspect's home -- a pipe, end caps to enclose the pipe, gunpowder and a fuse.
--During a search of Mr. Ashbrook's house, investigators found a book about serial killers.
Just like there were rumors of nazi/far right links to the Trench Coat Mafia, Ashbrook also had a history:
--John Craig, co-writer of a book on white supremacists, entitled Soldiers of God, said that Ashbrook boasted of his membership in the Phineas Priests, a loose-knit, virulently racist movement that advocates the killing of minorities and Jews. Buford Furrow, who allegedly shot up a Jewish day-care center in Los Angeles in August, is also believed to be a Phineas Priest.
Craig said he notified the FBI after the interview and called the Fort Worth police numerous times after realizing he knew the shooter at Wedgwood Church.
Motive was, as always, a mystery. Yet the IOs displayed an indifference, even a hostility, to the idea of finding out why:
--An FBI official said there were no plans to pursue Craig's story(see above)
--Chief Mendoza said that no evidence had been found linking Mr. Ashbrook to hate groups.....
-- Investigators said there was no reason to explore Mr. Ashbrook's motives further because he killed himself and there were no other suspects in the slayings.
--Chief Mendoza said that an exact motive for the crime might never be known and that his department would not spend the time to pursue it in a case he considered all but closed.
--Fort Worth officials said they had limited interest in recent outside leads and speculation about Ashbrook's past. "We're not doing a biography on this subject," city spokesman Pat Svacina said Friday.
And of course there were hints of others involved:
http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/15/church.shooting.04/index.html
--Lt. David Ellis of the Fort Worth Police Department described the gunman as a slender white male in his 30s. "We also have another subject that we have in custody," Ellis said. "He may turn out just to be a witness. We really don't know. He may be involved. It's too early to tell."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/448728.stm
--The gunman, who has not been identified, was believed to be in his 20s or 30s
posts on a contemporary forum:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a37e078661e20.htm
--I heard earlier the man's name was Victor Alina, they spelled it out, now they are saying they do not even know the shooters name????? What gives?
--Nothing else said about the other person taken into custody earlier (from MSNBC)
Unfortunately the video tapes made by onlookers cannot be used to resolve the issue:
--"The tapes have been destroyed, upon agreement between the church and the police department"
And the usual suspects showed up to 'assist' in the investigation:
--FBI agents, assisted by local law officers and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, carried evidence out of the Ashbrook home....
--Attorney General Janet Reno: "the FBI is heavily involved in the case"
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chu_viol3.htm
--The FBI's Dallas office, the FBI headquarters and the Department of Justice jointly decided that the prime cause for the killings was the mass murderer's mental condition. [Comment: Who ask them?]
In the acid test for a Columbine-client event, the politicians were quick to capitalize:
--Janet Reno: "It is going to require the commitment of all Americans to look at the issue of how we handle guns, of how we deal with mental illness, of how we deal with hate," she said.
She renewed her call for legislation the Clinton administration has been seeking in Congress to place tighter curbs on handguns.
--In Washington, President Clinton denounced the attack and offered the nation's sympathy to the victims, their families and the people of Fort Worth. ''Yet again, we have seen a sanctuary violated by gun violence, taking children brimming with faith and promise and hope, before their time,'' Mr. Clinton said.
--Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican Presidential front-runner, canceled campaign appearances in Michigan and went to the hospital in Fort Worth to comfort the families of the victims.
Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Grand Rapids. ''There seems to be a wave of evil passing through America now...."
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8 dead, 7 wounded
Five months after Columbine, a man shot up a youth gathering at the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas, resulting in eight deaths, with seven more wounded. Blamed was lone gunman Larry Gene Ashbrook, 47, who comitted suicide, ending the spree. Coming so soon after Columbine, it rubbed salt in wounds that had not yet begun to heal.
The dead
Shawn Brown - 23 (male)
Susan Kimberly Jones - 23
Cassandra Griffin - 14
Joseph Ennis - 14
Justin Ray - 17
Sydney Browning - 36 (female)
Christie Beckel - 14
The Event
--Witnesses said the gunman, dressed in black, began shooting shortly after 7pm..
--witness: "He had on a black T-shirt and dark jeans"
--Witness Christy Martin told KDFW-TV. The man had long hair and a mustache, and wore a black jacket, jeans and a white T-shirt.
--He was smoking a cigarette in church. A janitor approached him about the cigarette, and the authorities say Mr. Ashbrook shot him. He shot a woman sitting nearby in the head. And then he followed the sounds of music and voices into the main sanctuary, where hundreds of teen-agers had gathered for a contemporary Christian music concert. He walked inside and began firing. Two home videos, which have been turned over to the police, caught the carnage....
--(Ft. Worth PD)Chief Mendoza said Mr. Ashbrook screamed insults about ''the Baptist religion'' during the shooting, but investigators had not yet discerned his motives. Mr. Ashbrook did not leave a suicide note or any written evidence of his intentions, the chief said. Mr. Ashbrook lived several miles from Wedgwood Baptist, and members of the church had no idea why he chose them as a target. ''He was saying, 'Your religion is nothing, it's not worth anything, it means nothing,' '' said Mary Beth Talley, 17, who was wounded.
--Two guns were found on the scene--9-millimeter Ruger and .380-caliber AMT. Ashbrook had legally purchased them from flea market back in 1992
--He pausing during the attack to reload, using three clips in all. Investigators later found six loaded 9mm clips in his jacket pocket.
Psychological Background
There is no doubt Ashbrook was an oddball, and appeared to be on a downward spiral:
--Neighbors of Mr. Ashbrook related a litany of his bizarre behavior. Some teen-agers said he was known as ''Crazy Larry.''
--Larry Ashbrook lived with his parents when he was a teen-ager attending Fort Worth's O.D. Wyatt High School, and he continued to live with his parents until their deaths.
Neighbors who watched him grow up say he became a troubled man.
"You could see it. He was always talking to himself," said Tim Walker, a neighbor. "He would be as close as you and I, and you could see him carrying on a conversation with himself."
--Neighbors said he rarely spoke to anyone. One neighbor said she knew when he was home because he always slammed doors shut and often kicked them open. She said she could hear the noise across the street. Other neighbors often heard him arguing with his father in whose house he lived.
The motive for the tragedy was generally blamed on mental illness, apparently based on his bizarre behavior and the diagnosis of his siblings who said Larry was a paranoid schizophrenic. Though interestingly he had no police record or evidence he had any contact with the local mental health system. The medical examiner claims he found no drugs in his system. Larry had spent about seven years in the Navy, where he was a sonar operator on a P-3 Orion plane that tracks and destroys enemy submarines. That does not sound like a position where someone who exhibited mental instability would have long been tolerated. As I have pointed out, generally speaking schizophrenia strikes people in their late teens or early twenties, so I am suspicious of any late blooming serious mental disorder.
Weeks before the attack, Ashbrook sent letters to a local paper, telling of strange encounters with the Central Intelligence Agency.
--In his letters, Mr. Ashbrook wrote of ''being targeted by some investigative group,'' and told of going to the Fort Worth office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ''An agent, I will not list his name here, invited me to sit in his office and he would hear what I had to say,'' Mr. Ashbrook wrote. ''The problem, though, is that he listened for about one minute, then stood up and told me that I would be contacted.'' Marjorie Poche, a special agent for the F.B.I. in Dallas, said that there was no record of Mr. Ashbrook's visit but that it would not likely have been logged anyway.
Though in many ways --age, anger issues, mental deterioration--Ashbrook does seem to fit the profile, in other ways the event itself is reminiscient of the 'Columbine-client.' For example, just like many of the students on 4/20 initially thought a video was being made, many of the people in the church thought they were witnessing "a skit meant to dramatize the shootings at Columbine High School only months earlier." (A few teens allegedly jumped up in the darkened sanctuary and shouted, "Shoot me, shoot me!")
And as usual the gunman left a trail:
--Police said they recovered evidence while searching the suspect's home -- a pipe, end caps to enclose the pipe, gunpowder and a fuse.
--During a search of Mr. Ashbrook's house, investigators found a book about serial killers.
Just like there were rumors of nazi/far right links to the Trench Coat Mafia, Ashbrook also had a history:
--John Craig, co-writer of a book on white supremacists, entitled Soldiers of God, said that Ashbrook boasted of his membership in the Phineas Priests, a loose-knit, virulently racist movement that advocates the killing of minorities and Jews. Buford Furrow, who allegedly shot up a Jewish day-care center in Los Angeles in August, is also believed to be a Phineas Priest.
Craig said he notified the FBI after the interview and called the Fort Worth police numerous times after realizing he knew the shooter at Wedgwood Church.
Motive was, as always, a mystery. Yet the IOs displayed an indifference, even a hostility, to the idea of finding out why:
--An FBI official said there were no plans to pursue Craig's story(see above)
--Chief Mendoza said that no evidence had been found linking Mr. Ashbrook to hate groups.....
-- Investigators said there was no reason to explore Mr. Ashbrook's motives further because he killed himself and there were no other suspects in the slayings.
--Chief Mendoza said that an exact motive for the crime might never be known and that his department would not spend the time to pursue it in a case he considered all but closed.
--Fort Worth officials said they had limited interest in recent outside leads and speculation about Ashbrook's past. "We're not doing a biography on this subject," city spokesman Pat Svacina said Friday.
And of course there were hints of others involved:
http://www.cnn.com/US/9909/15/church.shooting.04/index.html
--Lt. David Ellis of the Fort Worth Police Department described the gunman as a slender white male in his 30s. "We also have another subject that we have in custody," Ellis said. "He may turn out just to be a witness. We really don't know. He may be involved. It's too early to tell."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/448728.stm
--The gunman, who has not been identified, was believed to be in his 20s or 30s
posts on a contemporary forum:
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a37e078661e20.htm
--I heard earlier the man's name was Victor Alina, they spelled it out, now they are saying they do not even know the shooters name????? What gives?
--Nothing else said about the other person taken into custody earlier (from MSNBC)
Unfortunately the video tapes made by onlookers cannot be used to resolve the issue:
--"The tapes have been destroyed, upon agreement between the church and the police department"
And the usual suspects showed up to 'assist' in the investigation:
--FBI agents, assisted by local law officers and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, carried evidence out of the Ashbrook home....
--Attorney General Janet Reno: "the FBI is heavily involved in the case"
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chu_viol3.htm
--The FBI's Dallas office, the FBI headquarters and the Department of Justice jointly decided that the prime cause for the killings was the mass murderer's mental condition. [Comment: Who ask them?]
In the acid test for a Columbine-client event, the politicians were quick to capitalize:
--Janet Reno: "It is going to require the commitment of all Americans to look at the issue of how we handle guns, of how we deal with mental illness, of how we deal with hate," she said.
She renewed her call for legislation the Clinton administration has been seeking in Congress to place tighter curbs on handguns.
--In Washington, President Clinton denounced the attack and offered the nation's sympathy to the victims, their families and the people of Fort Worth. ''Yet again, we have seen a sanctuary violated by gun violence, taking children brimming with faith and promise and hope, before their time,'' Mr. Clinton said.
--Gov. George W. Bush, the Republican Presidential front-runner, canceled campaign appearances in Michigan and went to the hospital in Fort Worth to comfort the families of the victims.
Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Grand Rapids. ''There seems to be a wave of evil passing through America now...."
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