Sunday, February 13, 2005

Breaking News

FOX News is reporting a shooting in the Hudson Valley Mall in Ulster Co, New York. The mall is in lockdown, meaning no one is going in or out without being vetted by police. This sounds pretty standard. The cops want to be sure that whoever is leaving is not one of the bad guys. One in custody, one and maybe two are on the loose, hence the lockdown. I would speculate that the cops will go store to store and as they clear the store, will have any customers escorted out so that they will be out of harm's way and the cops have that fewer number of people to worry about becoming hostages or victims..

One victim has been airlifted out. First reports had machine guns being used; a witness speaking to Fox said she saw one gunman with a handgun. Some speculation on Fox is that it's gang related. Since there is no information about the why's and wherefore's, Fox admits this is speculation. One man who is an expert on this type of situation is saying that it could be a lover's quarrel, a disgruntled employee situation, or a gang shootout.

CNN had Deputy Fire Chief Wayne Platt, who was in the mall, on the phone who reported what sounded like automatic weapons. He said police told him that there are three shooters. A local news reporter is reporting on CNN that there are unsubstantiated reports that the police are looking for one shooter with an automatic machine gun.

Only knowing what's been said so far, I'll speculate and say it's a robbery gone sour, gang-related, a drug deal gone bad, or a random shooting where someone just decided to go out and shoot people.

UPDATE: Reports were wrong about the number of shooters, it was only one. But it appears that I was right (with the number of scenarios I gave, how could I be wrong?) when I speculated it was someone who just decided to go out shoot people.

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