PA - Mass shooting at LA Fitness near Pittsburgh, 4 dead, 4 August 2009

[nursebeeme]

This gets more bizarre by the second! If the shooter was targeting a certain person you think he would have left the lights ON to see his mark???? This sounds kinda like a disgruntled employee or maybe just a psycho on a bender!

 

[SuziQ]

Another live link:

http://www.wpxi.com/video/20283815/index.html

 

[SuziQ]

Pregnant instructor, was possibly her last night. She was wounded. No word on her condition.

 

[SuziQ]

Per witness, the instructor is Mary.

 

[nursebeeme]

per your live link Q, they are saying that the women in the room thought the man was coming in or out of playing racquetball. He was dressed in gym attire

 

[Sooner Fan#1]

Soonie ... I'm a bit freaked out!

Yes, the instructor is reportedly pregnant, and yes *sigh* she was reportedly shot. There is conflicting reports on the number of deaths ... some say 4, some say 5. The number of victims seems to range from 10, to 15.

I know you must be sweetie..hang in there:blowkiss:

 

[Sooner Fan#1]

Soonie ... I'm a bit freaked out!

Yes, the instructor is reportedly pregnant, and yes *sigh* she was reportedly shot. There is conflicting reports on the number of deaths ... some say 4, some say 5. The number of victims seems to range from 10, to 15.

Are you pretty close to where it happened? My daughter lives in Quakertown,PA but is at Disney World rght now. Geeez this is just real skerry!

 

[jnTexas]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,537004,00.html

Debi Wozniak, of Dormont, a suburb of Pittsburgh, is a regular at the weekly Latin impact dance exercise class. She was running late Tuesday night and didn't make it, but she said her sister, Joann Gazzam, was in the class.

Gazzam told Wozniak that a man came in through the glass double doors at the exercise room's entrance. He walked to the back of the room near some weights and set down the bag, fumbling with it for a few minutes and came up with what Gazzam said were apparently two guns and began shooting.

Gazzam told Wozniak that several people appeared to be wounded, including the instructor, and that it was apparent that four people were dead and that the gunman had killed himself

 

[sadyjade]

Are you pretty close to where it happened?

I work in that area frequently, but I live about an hour away. I work in retail and help the DM in that district a lot. It's a nice area. If it wasn't so late, I'd be calling him right now. I will in the morning for sure. This kind of thing always strikes a certain sense of fear in me ... so violent, random.
Pappy always said "Be weary of the cowards, peanut. They are crazy" He said a mouthfull!

 

[Kimster]

Unbelievable! A GYM? I am completely stunned.

 

[Sooner Fan#1]

I just don't know what to think anymore...

 

[SuziQ]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09217/988669-55.stm

(snip)
Two sources said that one of the shooting victims was the gunman's ex-girlfriend. The woman was shot in the thigh.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09217/988669-55.stm#ixzz0NI0hGlTM

 

[SuziQ]

Waiting, uncertainty agonizing outside gym
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09217/988689-55.stm?cmpid=relatedarticle#ixzz0NI4cRdFz

 

[Brwnigirl]

I can't seem to find many details on this. Are all the victims reported to be women?

 

[SuziQ]

From twitter:
http://twitter.com/PGnewsroom

Allegheny County police indicate Bridgeville gym shooter was a member of the facility

Two sources said one of the victims was the ex-girlfriend of the gunman http://tinyurl.com/mywpq3

 

[SuziQ]

I can't seem to find many details on this. Are all the victims reported to be women?

Yes they were. Most of the channels will be covering this live in about an hour to hour and half. I'll post a link. I'm having bad insomnia tonight.

 

[SuziQ]

Links to local tv stations:

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/index.html

http://kdka.com/

http://www.wpxi.com/index.html

 

[Bobbisangel]

If this guy's ex-girlfriend was at the dance class I wonder why in the world he turned the lights off and then started shooting. You would think he would have left the lights on and made sure he killed her...not just injure her. Why did he have to shoot the other women I wonder. Maybe he thought they encouraged her to leave him as they have probably been a group for a while.
Who knows what goes through a control freak's mind though. Of course he had to take his own life after killing all of those women. He probably thought his ex was dead.

 

[SuziQ]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/us/05shoot.html?hp

(snip)
Richard Walker, 23, of Tulsa, Okla., who is working in oil fields in the area, was playing basketball in the fitness center when the shooting began, and as he and others were running out of the gym, a woman who had been shot in the thigh collapsed in front of him. He picked her up and carried her about 50 yards.
“The woman kept repeating, ‘He’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me. He’s going to kill me,’ ” Mr. Walker said, still wearing the blood-stained white singlet he wore as he fled.
The woman collapsed, unconscious, and was taken away by emergency workers a few minutes later.
Other people in the gym told him that the woman was the ex-girlfriend of the gunman, Mr. Walker said.

 

[foryourwine]

Suspect identified as George Sodini.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/20283352/detail.html