Active shooter in Colorado Springs, 9 injured, 4 are officers. Reports are it is at Planned Parenthood, though until the shooter is secured they are not releasing more information to keep anyone hiding from the gunman (men) safe.
Information and updates here. And here.
I don’t know if everyone feels this way, but here in Colorado it seems we have an active shooter, mass casualty situation several times a year.
If you value your sanity, do not read any of the comments to any of the stories they are as awful as you can imagine, even though it has not been confirmed that Planned Parenthood was the target.
ETA: The police just confirmed it is one suspect and it WAS at Planned Parenthood. It sounds like he may also have explosives.
ETA2: Gunman is in custody, not releasing information on injuries or causalities yet.
redshirt
This is going to get worse too. Watch for more PP attacks in the comings weeks.
jacy
KRDO reporting that PP clinics in New York are on high alert just in case.
Mike J
KOAA is live on the air, they say the hostages are being held in the Planned Parenthood.
Has anyone seen Carly today?
TaMara (BHF)
@redshirt: They are being very cautious about saying this was actually an attack on PP, there are several store fronts in that location – it’s a strip mall. Press conference coming up shortly.
ETA: See updates on the original post. Looks like it was targeted at Planned Parenthood.
Mike J
@Mike J: “Lt Buckley tells us this is isolated to the Planned Parenthood facility.” KOAA just now, briefing starting now
Brachiator
I’m listening to the local radio coverage in Los Angeles. The “breaking team coverage” is confusing, contradictory and unclear. The shooter had either escaped or (now) is holed up. A press conference is starting now.
Emma
I read the story earlier, and as I mentioned below, one of the first commenters said that it’s a War on Christmas false flag operation by Obama.
I think he was serious.
jacy
You can get Colo Springs stations streaming live on the interwebs. I’m watching KRDO TV. There is also KOAA and KKTV.
Mike J
“There are items that the suspect took with him to the Planned Parenthood that we have to check out”
Mnemosyne
Because, clearly if you’re upset about women killing their babies through abortion, the best way to prevent them from getting abortions is to shoot and kill them. It’s only logical!
/deep dark snark
RandomMonster
The whole “he was a bank robber who had to hole up in a Planned Parenthood” never seemed plausible.
jacy
At least the people trapped in the King Soopers won’t run out of food.
MazeDancer
Press conference live on TV. Colorado Springs Police Spokesperson: “Incident started in Planned Parenthood”. Not bank. People fled to bank from Planned Parenthood.
Mark B
Any bets on whether this is ever referred to as a terrorist attack in the news media, even though that is clearly what it is.
OzarkHillbilly
SSDD.
Mike J
I wish the cops would learn that “improvised” does not mean the same thing as “explosive”. I don’t care if the device is improvised or carefully engineered, I care if it is explosive.
Grung_e_Gene
@efgoldman: Muslims are terrorists blacks are criminals, whites are neither.
jacy
It appears that the authorities are worried that the suspect is booby-trapping the building in anticipation of responders coming in.
Mike J
@jacy: KOAA says early reports said propane tanks, but cops only said “items”
D58826
propane tanks!!!!!!. Heck I always take a couple or propane tanks when I make a withdrawal from my bank. But unless he has a dark complexion it isn’t a terrorist incident just some disgruntled fellow who is upset that the liberals are making war on Christmas or something (sigh)
Trentrunner
I really wish moderate Christians would address these violent extremist terrorist factions in their religious community.
Dr. McCoy
@Mark B:
Calling it a terrorist attack helps how?
Rather than just mentally disturbed individual.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Grung_e_Gene:
I thought blacks were thugs, I guess it could be criminal thugs. A twofer!
SiubhanDuinne
Meanwhile, in Biloxi, Mississippi, some asshole decided to light a cigarette at a Waffle House.
The waitress asked him to put it out or smoke outside, so he shot her in the head
Happily, he’s been charged with first degree murder.
jnfr
I can’t stop checking on the situation but I feel really sick to my stomach.
redshirt
@SiubhanDuinne: The price of freedom I guess.
Mike J
@Dr. McCoy:
Eric Rudolph hid out for years with the help of religious extremists.
D58826
Another good reason to shot someone –
ooops a repeat
Dr. McCoy
@Mike J:
So a drone strike is in order?
He is not going to be given safe haven after injuring at least four police.
Starfish
@Trentrunner: They do. My husband frequently donates to the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
OzarkHillbilly
@D58826: I was at my local barber shop when another customer decided to share a video a buddy of his took on his I-phone. My memory is not real clear of all the technical arrangements of the device, but the crux of it was his buddy shot a 20# propane tank with his AR-15 from about 100 yds (IIRC that was all there was). The explosion was rather impressive and the ditch they were in was peppered extensively with shrapnel. Do not underestimate what flammable gas under pressure is capable of.**
** During the flood of ’93, half of S STL almost went up in a mushroom cloud when a propane tank farm got flooded…. Or so one of the fire fighters who was sent in on the “suicide mission” of securing the tanks told me.
Pogonip
I wonder if this is the same incident as the Chase Bank robbery in Colorado Springs that was just on our local station’s national news roundup? It looked like it but then one strip mall looks pretty much like another if you are not familiar with the area.
redshirt
@efgoldman:
Newtown broke me. That these right wing nuts can not only accept the deaths of dozens of little kids but actively fight against not only efforts to prevent future school shooting, but they harass the parents of the dead children.
They are monsters and need to be treated as such.
We’re at war.
Ryan
Well, thank goodness we don’t have to worry about Radical Islam. Seriously, I fear my fellow Americans a hell of a lot more.
TaMara (BHF)
@efgoldman: Oh, please enlighten us on what those votes would be.
How Colorado has tightened its gun laws since the Aurora shooting
Bobby Thomson
God damn Christifascists. If the Republican candidates would just say “Christian extremism” this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.
When are moderate Christians going to condemn these acts of terrorism?
BillinGlendaleCA
@redshirt:
Unfortunately they’re better armed. (sigh).
polyorchnid octopunch
@Dr. McCoy: Because if you don’t call it what it is, the likelihood that anything effective will ever be done is basically zero.
US elites have completely forgotten the lesson of the eventual fate of the German elites that supported this sort of thing in the thirties.
skerry
@Grung_e_Gene: I thought whites were “lone wolves”
OzarkHillbilly
@Starfish: I think he was referring to the frequent and recurring calls for apologies from all muslims after any jihadist attack, not to true Christians like your husband who actually do care about their fellow human beings. It can be hard to not get your dander up when you get painted with a broad brush, I know.
TaMara (BHF)
@efgoldman: You clearly do not know the political make up of the state.
jnfr
@Pogonip:
The CFPD has confirmed that it was an attack that began and remained with the Planned Parenthood office. Some people fled to the bank but the bank was never a target.
Starfish
@efgoldman: No. They vote in the type of libertarians that did actually exist before the whole national libertarian/tea party thing was hijacked by the RWNJ. The libertarians that existed at that point may have been gun fondlers who criticized the government, but they were usually fighting things like government corruption and interested in better government. But like @redshirt, Newtown broke me of my acceptance of any of their nonsense.
Villago Delenda Est
@Trentrunner: Someday they might. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.
Villago Delenda Est
@polyorchnid octopunch: One positive thing Hitler did accomplish through his valiant efforts was the destruction of the Junkers.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ryan: I personally are far more concerned about insane fundamentalist Christianists in this country than insane fundamentalist Islamists in Syria and Iraq.
FortGeek
@redshirt:
I ended up in the hospital the morning after Newtown. My nurse for that day was a loathsome specimen who grumbled that it was all just an excuse to take away her gunz.
Eric U.
@skerry: whites are almost always suffering from severe mental illness
Grung_e_Gene
@BillinGlendaleCA:
When “whites” commit crimes it’s because of some demonic outside force, e.g. Video Games and Violent Movies (which is code for Hollywood and Jews), naughty lyrics in rap music (dastardly black culture influence), mental illness, liberal schooling, and so forth. Thus, we can conclude the virtuous white person was corrupted. Whereas, Muslims are Terrorists because of their religion and Blacks are criminals because of their culture and upbringing. They are evil due to their inherent nature.
Grung_e_Gene
@skerry:Conservatives don’t call the criminal incidents of white male rage “terrorism” because they fundamentally agree with the actions.
Villago Delenda Est
@Grung_e_Gene: One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.
David Koch
but, but… Christians aren’t terrorists!
There is NO War on Women!
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
No indeed. “Happily” was not the right word. What I meant was, so often these things end either with the shooter committing suicide by cop, or with the authorities taking an “it-was-an-accident-hasn’t-he-suffered-enough” stance and not charging the gunman (or charging at a lesser level).
p.a.
Colorado Springs, home of Focus on the Family.
Grung_e_Gene
@David Koch: sure, which is why when this white male right-wing domestic terrorist surrenders he can look forward to be canonized by conservatives.
Dr. McCoy
@Grung_e_Gene:
You are truly lost.
MazeDancer
Actual NY Times article paragraph:
No mention vids faked. Not even an obligatory “some say”. Nothing but implying that PP officials do this bad stuff and vids captured the “discussing”.
Maybe NY Times thinks since they have no competition in NYC, and anywhere on the left, if they get more conservative they can widen their base?
NY Times web site was a solid 45 minutes behind Twitter. MSNBC was even on air before Times even posted a peep.
Twitter is always first.
David Koch
Congress needs to hold emergency hearings into Christian radicalization.
This is nothing less than a war of civilizations. These “Christians” hate us for our freedoms.
MazeDancer
MSNBC: Gunman walked out of building indicated he wanted to surrender. He was captured alive. Building being searched.
scav
@MazeDancer: What? No policeman felt threatened? Must be the pre-forgiven sort of bad action.
p.a.
Colorado Springs, home of Focus on the Family.
@SiubhanDuinne:
What, the arresting officers didn’t fear for their lives although he was actually armed and had already committed a murder?? Unpossible.
David Koch
There is no choice: we have to shut down the worst churches – they are nothing more than radicalization centers.
Additionally, we need to start a national database on Christians, including mandatory registration.
Mike J
@p.a.:
They warned that if Obama was elected in 2008, by 2012 we would live in a world where:
Gay marriage is declared a Constitutional right.
Same-sex couples working in your Christian-owned company must receive equal benefits.
Churches must not discriminate against gay people when they hire staff (with the exception of Senior Pastor).
We now have universal health care
Gays are allowed in the military.
SiubhanDuinne
Colorado Springs gunman is apparently in custody. Good.
Baud
Early this week, Rachel had a segment about Ted Cruz’s courting of the radical anti-abortion right.
SiubhanDuinne
@p.a.:
Well, in fairness, the guy is white.
The Ancient Randonneur
@David Koch:
While they’re at it the Feds should probably round up and register all the white men who attend these churches as they seem to be the most likely individuals to be radicalized.
Botsplainer
@Mike J:
And the Bush DOJ immediately took the death penalty off the table and entered into a quick deal in order to stridently and loudly avoid finding out who those accessories after the fact were.
Because Jesus.
David Koch
We need a pause on accepting Christian immigrants and refugees.
We just can’t do it right now. It’s not safe.
sharl
@MazeDancer: CNN* apparently did one better than that, and brought on an anti-PP person for commentary, one Adam Kinzinger (R-IL).
*(In other news, water is wet.)
David Koch
Extremist religious clerics like Carly Fiorina need to be arrested and sent to Guantanamo for harsh interrogations.
scav
Arresting the man at all was clearly the action of a state actively persecuting someone exercising their deeply held religious beliefs. The persecution! The oppression of the godly perfect!
Frank Wilhoit
Here we see the results of incitement at high levels within our polity — levels just short of, but right up to, the highest. A polity that tolerates incitement demonstrates a “depraved indifference” (in the precise meaning of the legal term-of-art) to its own survival, as well as to the well-being of its members. It also demonstrates its own inability to project power internally and thereby loses two of the foundations of its legitimacy.
The First Amendment forbids prior restraint but nothing forbids responding to incitement with the unique and awful punishment that it deserves — nothing except cowardice, laziness, and the aforementioned depraved indifference.
David Koch
Je Suis Planned Parenthood.
Mike J
@David Koch: I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what Carly Fiorina would do to us. That’s a whole different level, and I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation.
Bobby Thomson
@MazeDancer:
So he’s white, then?
Grung_e_Gene
@Dr. McCoy: I am? Do you doubt these will be the conclusions reached by Faux News and repeated in one solid voice by conservatives everywhere?
jnfr
My stomach is slowly unclenching.
Admiral_Komack
@Dr. McCoy: It helps by calling the terrorist exactly what he is-a terrorist.
Trentrunner
@OzarkHillbilly: He was indeed. He was also asking a legitimate question. Because apparently “moderate” Christians don’t have much of a megaphone, because I never see any MSM reporting on their repudiation of these extremist Christian terrorist murderers. Happy to be educated.
sharl
@sharl: Hoo boy, here’s the CNN footage (3m24s) at C&L. After intro and discussion of the police situation, Congressman Adam Kinzinger (R-IL, 16th CD) – military veteran and “hero” – given opportunity to let his anti-PP freak flag fly. Thaaaaanks, CNN!
sigaba
So you suppose this guy is going to just plead guilty, or some bright young conservative defense attorney is going to try for the Revenge of The Twinkie Defense?
Punchy
@MazeDancer: And the rush is on to determine his voting proclivities…
Mike J
@Trentrunner:
They’re never asked to repudiate them.
redshirt
@Dr. McCoy: I think you’re lost.
Rebuttal?
David Koch
@Mike J: Dayam bro! Brother Barack really did keep his promise to fundamentally change Merica.
Keith G
I am not sure why anyone who values their sanity, let alone their blood pressure, follows minute to minute breaking news like this. About the time of Sandy Hook, I decided to start following this type of news as it it were 1965 and Walter Cronkite was at the helm. Just check in once in the morning, noon, dinner and bedtime. Avoid cable and online sources in between and ignore the three news apps dinging on my phone.
There is so much mis-information and speculation combined with the chance for compounded negativity and more than enough hysterics.
Going back to my chores and my audio book. I figure much of it will be sorted out by tomorrow morning.
redshirt
I’ll say this, just by judging the barometer of Balloon Juice commentators responses, we’re inching towards that space which will allow us to fight back. And let’s assume the BJ commentariat represents some segment of liberal America.
We’re getting there! Close to realizing we’re in a war that the other side has already been fighting for 250 or so years.
redshirt
@Keith G: I’ve been doing this for years now. I get the headlines, I know what’s up, and BJ helps me with the details. But no way I am going to CNN or MSNBC or any TV station for 24/7 balls to the wall propaganda.
David Koch
@Mike J: Exactly. You never hear any Christian, not a single one, denounce Radical Christian terrorism. They won’t even call them Radical Christians.
Villago Delenda Est
@David Koch: This is not far from the truth.
The fact of the matter is, these Christianists hate the Age of Reason, hate the Enlightenment, because these two things brought about the secular state…a direct reaction to the bloodthirsty wars of religion that plagued Europe for two centuries. They desperately attempt to coopt things that are purely fruits of the Enlightenment…for example, the US Constitution…because they hate equality, they hate freedom, they hate anything that rejects their invisible friend in the sky.
Fuck them. Fuck them all.
piratedan7
@Mike J: the thing is, Fiorina wouldn’t even use American torturers, she’d probably outsource those jobs to Pakistan.
D58826
@OzarkHillbilly: My comment was meant to be sarcasm. Since some of the nut cases are talking about false flag operations and other nonsense.
J R in WV
@MazeDancer:
The idea that the NY Times is liberal in any way is so obviously wrong and stupid that no one should give it any credence. The Times was a real journalistic newspaper back in the 1960s and 1970s – objective and willing to tell the truth about criminal Republicans.
The days of real journalism at the NY Times are a generation ago gone, at least. They encouraged the illegal invasion of Iraq 12 years ago, for one example. They refused to use the word torture about the torture inflicted upon prisoners held by the US and its allies for another example.
And now they won’t be honest about fraudulent video released by right-wing propaganda organizations. They won’t be honest about outrageous lies propagated by Trump, from celebrating Americans on September 11, 2001 and on and on.
There are self-proclaimed Christian Nazis killing doctors in church, in their clinics, shooting nurses, patients, bombing clinics repeatedly. It is the textbook definition of organized terrorism attempting to accomplish political aims at the point of a gun.
For @Dr. McCoy to say “You are truly lost” is for him to align himself with terrorist bombers and assassins in public. I’m pretty sure McCoy isn’t his real name, and doctor is not his occupation.
Dr. McCoy, you are a terrorist for speaking out in favor of their actions and defending them, and I hope the NSA informs the FBI of your residential address so you can be strenuously interviewed at a facility not known to the public. Because they do know who you are.
p.a.
@Punchy:
Or possibly affluenza.
Bobby Thomson
@Dr. McCoy: You’re the lost one. Free Republic and Red State are thataway —>.
redshirt
@efgoldman: I didn’t mean by weapons, but rather by votes. We need to energize a whole segment of the population to vote and use propaganda to do so.
Just One More Canuck
@jacy: I’m not sure you will see this but I am glad to see you on here – I hadn’t seen you for a long time
mudslide567
I live about 500 yards from this Planned Parenthood clinic, drive by it a couple of times a day minimum and walk past it everyday to go to the local supermarket. Every Friday there are a couple of hundred antichoice protesters, and more recently some decent showings of pro choice supporters. Most sensible people around here have been expecting something to pop off. Yesterday I was headed to the supermarket when all this blew up. Luckily I was intercepted by police and got to spend most of the day in watchful mode in the house… two minutes earlier and I would have been on lockdown in the supermarket.
This place is christianist central… Family Research Council has their own exit off of I-25. The Airforce Academy is a hotbed central of christinists attempts to take over the military. This event was a shock but not a surprise.
This is the third(!) active shooter in 6 weeks… One did not makes national news because not enough people killed..
Everyone knows these terrorist leadersincluding where they congregate. Not really sure why we cannot take them out some of them there surgical drone strikes.
sharl
@mudslide567: Oh wow. Glad you are safe, and hope you stay that way! Avoid the crazies, at least as much as you can.
Archpundit
@p.a.: Kid Rock really needs to stay out of those Waffle Houses. It was only a matter of time.