Assasination Attempt made today on Chairman of the Democratic Party in Arkansas

L

LanceOregon

Moderator
No word yet regarding what possible motive was behind this attack made at the Democratic Party headquarters in Little Rock, Arkansas. We do know that the man asked for the Chairman of the Party, Bill Gwatney, by name. And then shot him three times. Gwatney is said to be in critical condition at a local hospital.

Here is a photo of Gwatney:

art.ar.dem.party.shtg.jpg



Latest report is that the attacker has been captured after a 20 mile high speed chase. He is also shot, and no word is available yet on his condition.

The Arkansas Republican Party headquarters closed its office after hearing of the attack, fearing that a copycat shooting might take place.

Both political parties said that they are considering upgrading security at their offices in Little Rock.

Boy, if more politicians get shot this year, I can just see the demands for new gun controls to skyrocket!!! It is always bad news for gun owners, when political leaders are shot. Let's pray and hope that there was some personal grudge involved, and that the motive for this shooting was not political. Otherwise, this election campaign could get real nasty regarding gun control real quick.

Here are some stories about this attempted murder:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZT13WqlQ9i-8LZpa2zR-f0t9YSwD92HJ9KO1

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/13/arkansas.shooting/?iref=mpstoryview

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From the AP google article:
Gwatney, who owns and operates three car dealerships in Pulaski County
Click to expand...
Maybe it was a political assassination attempt, or maybe the perp had some issues with a car or service at one of Gwatney's dealerships.
 
The shooter has now been identified as Tim Johnson, age 50, of Searcy, Arkansas. Witnesses said that he complained to staff at the headquarters that he had lost his job and was now unemployed and struggling. When he was told that Gwatney could not meet with him, he forced his way into Gwatney's office.

See this news story for details:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26181389/

Democratic National Party Chairman Howard Dean has already condemned the shooting using very strong language.

This seems a bit similar to the mass shooting that took place at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church a few weeks ago. That case also involved a man in his 50's, who was unemployed and in financial crisis. I guess that some people have a real strange way of handling stress and adversity.

With more and more folks losing their job every week now, I sure hope no more people crack up like these guys apparently did.

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Tragic

With both dead, this is going to run rampant speculation, at least for a while. Watch the usual suspects and see if they focus on the man, or, as usual, the gun.
 
The police are now reporting that Johnson had no criminal record. So he probably had the right to legally possess the two handguns that police say that he had.

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The latest report is that Johnson had been an employee of a Target store north of Little Rock and had been fired from his job just a couple of hours earlier that morning.

He apparently was caught writing some filthy graffiti on a wall in the store. No word on what the graffiti was about, but his supervisor immediately fired him for vandalizing the store.

Johnson apparently got all worked up over the matter, and the police were called. But he had left by the time they got there.

But instead of going back to the Target store to gain revenge, he went to the Democratic Party Headquarters instead.

Here is this new report:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/14/america/Democratic-Shooting-Optional.php

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Well that makes sense. Get mad at target, murder somebody in another profession.

It is sort of hard to call it an assassination when Gwatney didn't appear to be killed for political reasons. He just appeared to be a high profile target, like doing school shootings, by a person who didn't really expect to survive.
 
It now looks like there might be a potential motive related to Gwatney's car dealerships.

Police found that two sets of car keys that Johnson possessed in his home that had the Gwatney car dealership emblem on them.

So it appears that he did indeed buy vehicles from Gwatney's car dealerships.

So this may well not be a politically motivated killing after all. However, since Johnson is dead, we may thus never know what the real motive was. He was such a loner, that he really did not talk to anyone.

See this news update:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/08/15/MNRT12BAQP.DTL

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