An active shooter event and law enforcement response began this morning around 10 AM EST. NBC4 Columbus has reported that local law enforcement has killed the shooter, taken two other men into custody, eight individuals have been injured. They have reported that there was a vehicular incident as well: a driver ran over several people, though it is unclear how that is or may be related. Additionally, at least one of the students interviewed indicated he heard an explosion in addition to three gunshots.
The shelter in place has been lifted as has the active shooter alert, but all OSU classes have been cancelled today.
Here’s the link to NBC4 Columbus’s live feed.
And here’s OSU Campus Police’s twitter’s most recent update.
UPDATE 1/2 : Shelter in Place lifted. Scene is now secure. ALL classes are canceled on Columbus campus for the remainder of the day.
— OSU Police (@OSUPOLICE) November 28, 2016
UPDATE 2/2: Area around 19th & College Ave. is closed. List of buildings closed and additional information at https://t.co/5eIPORv9us
— OSU Police (@OSUPOLICE) November 28, 2016
schrodinger's cat
So who is the shooter? Has the loser of the popular vote started his baseless Twitter speculations?
Botsplainer
All I know is that the NRA is eagerly awaiting news of the type of weapon so that it can notify both the actual manufacturer and knock off companies to ramp up production of the model.
May as well put a commemorative stamp on it.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodinger’s cat: The two people taken into custody in the parking garage were: 1 white male and 1 African American male. The former, based on dress, looked like a student. The latter, based on dress, looked like he worked in the maintenance department.
Pogonip
I am sorry to report that the update I was just sent says 1 victim is in critical condition.
I would not be surprised to learn that the maintenance man had nothing to do with it, just had the bad luck to be in the vicinity.
Adam L Silverman
@Pogonip: Are you at The OSU? Stay safe!
Bill
CNN is reporting it was a knife attack. Non-lifet-hreatening injuries to 8. Shooter is dead.
JPL
@Bill: I heard another report saying many of the injuries were due to the car hitting a crowd.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
Yep. No gunshot wounds. Knife and car. CBS has been saying all morning that four were confirmed gunshot wounds.
jacy
Last night in Baton Rouge, a man shot a woman in the car he was riding in and then pushed her out into traffic. When people stopped to help her, he shot at and wounded a couple of people, then ran over a couple of people and then rammed the ambulance that showed up. Followed by a shootout with police and an escape into the woods, where he died. Also 10 people shot (one killed) in a Bourbon Street shootout over the weekend. Scary shit going on everywhere it feels like.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill: Here’s the AP’s latest update:
https://twitter.com/AP/status/803284537967071233
mai naem mobile
I’m sure Orange Douche has tweeted about it being radical isLamic terrahrists because of the recount in Wisconsin.
Schlemazel
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
If only there were a way we could get more mindless speculation from our media
Pogonip
@Adam L Silverman: No, but I used to live in Columbus. I was only on the OSU campus once. It’s huge. I’m glad they got the offender because there are probably thousands of places to hide there, and to ditch a gun.
Pogonip
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, good, no life-threatening injuries after all.
Pogonip
@Schlemazel: They’re working on better ways to scare–er, serve–you even as we speak!
raven
Our nephew lives there.
Pogonip
@raven: My condolences. Columbus’s population WAY outgrew the road system about ten years ago. Takes forever to run errands. I’m told they’re widening some of the more congested roads now.
Schlemazel
@Pogonip:
Word is there are several gunmen, one armed with a small nuclear weapon and another with an M1-A1 tank. We have reports of a large group of ninjas repelling into office buildings and poison darting anyone over the age of 30. “Larry Melman,” (their ‘security expert’) “what do you make of these developments and do you think Columbus officals are prepared to deal with what could be a 30 megaton Nuclear explosion?”
Ruckus
@Pogonip:
I left Columbus 11 yrs ago. What was called horrendous traffic there is called every day normal here in southern CA. Or Northern CA for that matter. And that’s not rush hour, just every day traffic. Rush hour is known as free parking.
Ruckus
@Schlemazel:
Larry was a nice touch there.
Chris
@Schlemazel:
Larry’s fellow panelists will be a lawyer representing the local health insurance companies explaining that they can’t cover treatment because nothing in the victims’ insurance policies mentions nuclear irradiation, a preacher explaining that this is God’s judgment on Ohio for being so tolerant of gays and feminists, and a spokesman for the NRA explaining that if only the other students had been carrying nukes this shit wouldn’t happen.
We will then change the channel to Fox News, which will berate the previous channel for liberal bias.
Pogonip
@Schlemazel: Ha! I remember in the 2001 terrorist attacks, a Columbus newsbot asking the mayor: “So, is Columbus safe?” Being a politician, he had to repress the urge to yell “How the fuck would I know, you blow-dried idiot?” and say something like “We’re doing everything possible blah blah blah…” I felt for the man.
Pogonip
@Ruckus: Well, now I know THREE places not to move, the third being D.C. Their traffic is also horrendous.
Pogonip
@Ruckus: Who is Larry?
Keith G
Eight injured. Scary. I’m so relieved that it was not worse. That part of the main OSU campus, called North Campus, is adjacent to high density student housing. It was high-density when I lived and worked there as a resident advisor and it has only increased its student population over the years
schrodinger's cat
@Pogonip: It is an eminently walkable city and the Metro service is pretty good.
trollhattan
Michigan fans. Hrrumph.
Schlemazel
@Pogonip:
Larry Melman is the ‘security expert’ everyone of the 24 hours snooze networks employ. They are usually former LEO/LEO consultant that are dragged out for these types of events to useless what the officials are doing or thinking given whatever bullshit speculation thay are currently spouting live at the moment.
Lizzy L
@Pogonip: Thank you for that decision. Northern CA does not need any more people. I’m told Idaho is — uncrowded.
Chris
@schrodinger’s cat:
The metro service in DC is pretty terrible right now, but having just moved back from a city with no metro at all (Miami) – okay, fine, ONE line – even shitty metro service is a massive improvement.
@Schlemazel:
Tom Clancy used to be called on as a “security expert” from time to time, if my memory serves. That was one of my first clues that the coverage I got from American networks on that kind of thing would be utter bullshit.
Schlemazel
@Chris:
The guy was an insurance salesman before he was a novelist, with credentials like that I can see why they would want him
Keith G
@Lizzy L: Heh.
schrodinger's cat
@Chris: Even in the city itself? It was never that good in the posh NoVa suburbs, by design.
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemazel: I haven’t read a single book of his. Guess I haven’t missed much.
Ruckus
@Pogonip:
Larry Melman.
A comedic character on Letterman. Played by Calvert DeForest. See the google.
ETA also see the explanation above, this is not the first use of Larry. Also, Larry M is to TV as Carl is to the army.
Schlemazel
the Larry asshole on MSNBC is now saying this is exactly like an ISIL attack and what they train people to do.
why is it never larry that gets killed in these things?
Schlemazel
@schrodinger’s cat:
Hunt for Red October was a good yarn well told. Every book he wrote after that got progressively worse and none of them are worth the read after HfRO
A stock character in his later books was the sophomoric liberal President, weak and duplicitous but saved by the brave courageous and true security man
schrodinger's cat
@Schlemazel: I may have happened on the movie version, isn’t Sean (can’t act but looks like a hunk) Connery in it?
Poopyman
So …. eight people stabbed, the shooter is dead, and somebody ran over a bunch of people.
I can’t put my finger on it, but that report sounds somewhat … scattered.
Villago Delenda Est
This incident is a textbook example of why knowing what the eff happened is next to impossible based on multiple reports from the scene.
Villago Delenda Est
@Schlemazel: He’s an active agent of Daesh. Much like the cheeto faced shitgibbon is.
Joyce Harmon
I was surprised by the low number of fatalities compared to injuries. But – no gun.
Does anyone else think that within a generation, people will respond to the latest report of a mass murder event with an automatic “thotsenprars”, with no clue in the world what it means? It’s just the thing you say, like “gesundheit”.
Villago Delenda Est
@Joyce Harmon: “Adios”. Go with God.
karen marie
@Schlemazel: Old like me, I see. “Larry ‘Bud’ Melman,” indeed. :)
@Schlemazel: Wait, what? You’re not referring to Letterman’s Melman?
Miss Bianca
Oh, fuck. No.
Applejinx
@karen marie: I was gonna say! Letterman flashbacks :)
Poopyman
OK, while CNN is doing OK with the OSU situation, I got distracted.
That would never be OT on this blog.
ArchTeryx
@schrodinger’s cat: Red Storm Rising was pretty awesome, but it was co-written by the developer of the Harpoon naval simulator. Clancy handled the characters. The actual simulator programmer handled the military aspects. You could tell an actual military man was backstopping Clancy, and back then, some of his characters actually had multiple dimensions and acted like human beings for the most part. Even the Russian military was given a sympathetic treatment. (The politicians, on the other hand, were just evil, but ain’t that close to reality anyway nowadays?)
Pogonip
@Lizzy L: That’s too far to the opposite extreme. You don’t want the grocery to be 50 miles away.
I like to be in a town just big enough to have city water but small enough to have little to no traffic. South Liberal, the local blue enclave, fits that description but is prohibitively expensive; a house just this side of being condemned will start at 400K. I was chatting with a resident once about this and he said “South Liberal is in demand because it’s safe.” “Safe” is not the adjective I’d use when living in a place where I’m likely to fall through the upper floor. Maybe he meant “safe from homeowner’s associations.” South Liberal yards are, in general, deplorable (grin); tangled, overgrown messes that look like they haven’t been raked or mowed in years. I’m not a fan of yards either–we inherited this one and it’s a damned nuisance–but the South Liberal-ites go too far.
EBT
@Pogonip: I like replacing grass with either local evergreen ground cover if it exists or just green gravel.
Poopyman
Here are a few CNN article headings as regards the trumpster fire:
A veritable cornucopia, I tells ya.
Keith G
@Poopyman: Sounds a bit like an situation that started elsewhere end up up at that building by chance and not a plan.
Poopyman
For those that remember the name – and the roles – Fritz Weaver has died at 90.
gogol's wife
@Poopyman:
I love him so much. In my teenage-hood I would watch any show he was a guest star on. He was an excellent Nazi on Combat!
Brachiator
@Poopyman:
Solid character actor.
RIP.
Chris
@schrodinger’s cat:
Not sure what you’re asking – whether it’s pretty good even in the city itself, or whether it’s gotten worse even in the city itself?
No, it doesn’t go that deep into NoVA suburbs, although they’re building more lines there. It doesn’t go to Georgetown, either, for what are likely the same reasons.
@Schlemazel:
Hunt for Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin are just great Cold War novels, full stop. But yes, the quality definitely gets lower and lower as the story goes on. As far as the liberal-punching, I think a lot of the Jack Ryan universe starts to make sense when you realize that it’s meant to be an alternate universe in which events vindicate or at least are agreeable to the right wing viewpoint (on SDI, on Iran-contra, etc) instead of contradicting it.
schrodinger's cat
@ArchTeryx: I think the demonization of politicians is stupid. Politics seems to be the only profession where lack of experience is considered as a plus.
This is one of the reason the current loser of the popular vote, got traction for instance.
schrodinger's cat
@Chris: I used to live in the suburbs of MD about 10 years ago and the service in DC itself was excellent. I was wondering if that had deteriorated as well.
To go to Georgetown I would usually take a train to Dupont Circle and then walk from there. It was about a 20 min walk IIRC.
gogol's wife
Now that I’ve subscribed to the WaPo I see that the commenters there are even more pessimistic than the ones here. It’s sobering.
Chris
@schrodinger’s cat:
The problem is that the system’s started to fall apart, as a result of which they’ve finally started repairing it, which hopefully will make it better in the long run but for the while, the combination of those two things definitely makes the commutes longer and more unpredictable.
schrodinger's cat
Give this lol your thumbs up, Trumpkins have been downvoting it.
ArchTeryx
@schrodinger’s cat: It was (some of) the Russian politicians who were evil. They started the war based on a false-flag attack they set up after a major terrorist incident (sound familiar)? When the war started going badly for them, their first response was to put nukes on the table to maintain their own power. Not all politicians are bad, but bad politicians are bad the world over.
Pogonip
NBC 4 in Columbus–WCMH–just updated the attack. The gunfire came from the cop who killed the perpetrator, an 18-year-old Somali refugee who drove a car into a crowd, then jumped out and attacked with a knife. No mention of the maintenance man. I hope they don’t hold the poor guy overnight.
Ruviana
@Joyce Harmon: Late, but obligatory.
MaryL
@schrodinger’s cat: I’ve been working home for the past 18 months or so, and the Safe Track work hasn’t affected my line too badly, so I’m sure others have been struggling the past few months, but I always feel as though Metro gets a bad rap. Deferred maintenance has obviously caused some big problems, but on the whole I think it’s a pretty great system. Trouble is that everyone has one or two absolute horror stories (mine involve waiting over an hour on an outdoor platform on the coldest day of the year).
Chris
@MaryL:
Like I said, I fully appreciate the fact that the metro even in its current condition is a vast improvement on any city without a metro. And I’ve been taking it regularly for thirteen out of the last sixteen years, during most of which it was fine.
There’s definitely no denying that recently, though, it’s been kind of a goddamn mess, and the problems are becoming much more routine than the one or two horror stories. As noted above, it’ll hopefully be back to normal in a couple of years.
Amaranthine RBG
@Botsplainer:
Since no firearm was involved, this attack will probably never again be mentioned hereabouts.
The guy was probably just feeling economically anxious anyway.
debbie
Reading this thread long after the fact is really interesting in terms of the evolving story.
@trollhattan:
At first, I was more than a little worried it was someone from Michigan seeking revenge. Also, a couple of fraternities hung abusive signs on the front of their houses over the weekend. In addition, OSU fans (my bet’s on alumnae) booed the Michigan band so loudly no one could hear them playing.
I think there will be violence, sooner or later.
Pogonip
@Amaranthine RBG: Don’t know about that but I can tell you that if you were in Columbus today and turned on the local talk station the main topic of discussion would be how the unfortunate incident might affect the Buckeyes.