Wednesday - March 11, 2009

Bloodbath in Alabama

The death toll in Tuesday’s deadly shooting spree in south Alabama rose to 12 Wednesday as police searched for clues into the deadly shooting rampage that stretched across two counties.

Michael McLendon killed himself Tuesday afternoon, ending what police described as a shocking shooting rampage that claimed the lives of 11 other victims, some of which were random targets.

The 11th victim was revealed Wednesday morning. According to WSFA-TV in Montgomery , McClendon’s girlfriend was found dead inside the home of the shooter’s mother, who died Tuesday after police said McClendon set the house on fire.

Witnesses of the shootings and their aftermath described a man with multiple weapons who engaged in heavy gunfire, leaving behind blood-soaked porches and bodies.
...
“He started in his mother’s house,” Preachers said. “Then he went to Samson, and he killed his granny and granddaddy and aunt and uncle. He cleaned his family out.”
...
The wife and baby of a sheriff’s deputy [Myers] were also among the dead, said Sheriff Greg Ward of Geneva County.

The bloodshed, which spread across two counties and claimed 11 victims plus the gunman, began about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when McLendon burned down the house he lived in with his mother in Kinston, Ala.

Authorities found Lisa McLendon’s body and the body of McLendon’s girlfriend inside, MyFOXAL.com reported. Coffee County Sheriff Dave Sutton said McClendon put his mother on an L-shaped couch, piled things on top of her and set her afire. He said McClendon also shot four dogs at the house. McLendon then drove a dozen miles southeast to Samson, in Geneva County, where he gunned down nine more victims, including four members of his family. After, he drove around the town shooting out his car window, killing three more people seemingly at random, authorities said.

The rampage ended another 12 miles farther east in Geneva at the metals plant where the shooter worked until 2003. After a gun battle with police, McLendon killed himself. The massacre left four other people injured, including a baby girl. The victims haven’t all been identified.

“He cleaned his family out,” Coffee County Coroner Robert Preachers said. “We don’t know what triggered it.”

The sheriff deputy’s wife and child were slaughtered in their mobile home, officials said. McClendon also killed another person at a Samson supply store and a woman at a service station, they said. The location of the shooting of the 10th victim was unclear.

Cops said McClendon fired randomly at people as his maroon Mitsubishi Eclipse traveled along Highway 52 toward Geneva’s Reliable Metal Products, which makes grills and vents for heating and air conditioning systems, mainly for hotels. McLendon had reportedly once worked at the plant.

“He was just driving down the street shooting at people sitting on their porches,” Smith said. “A family was just sitting on the porch and they were shot.”

Victim identities and a motive remained unknown. Preachers confirmed that several other victims of the gunman were related to him including McLendon’s grandparents, an aunt and an uncle. Investigators told WSFA-TV the victims ranged in age from 18 months to 74-years-old.

Investigators said McLendon drove down Highway 52 where he fired at least seven times on a state trooper vehicle. The trooper was wounded by broken glass.

He then drove to the Samson Pipe and Supply Company on Highway 52 where he gunned down another victim. Afterwards, he took aim at an innocent civilian at a local service station in the same area. That victim also died of their wounds.
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Geneva police then began a pursuit of the suspect’s vehicle, chasing McLendon to the Reliable Metal Products company in Geneva. Officials later confirmed he had been a former employee of the company, but the reasons for his leaving the company were not immediately know.

Once there, officials said the man fired at least a 30 round burst of ammunition at the city police chief before running inside the business. The police chief was grazed by gunfire but was wearing a bullet-proof vest.

A short time later investigators said they heard shots inside the building, and when they entered the business they found the man dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Geneva Police Chief Frank Lindsey was wounded by McLendon, who trapped him and his partner in their police car as he fired round after round from his automatic weapon.

Lindsey told FOX News that they encountered McLendon at a Wal-Mart in Geneva.

“He had a lot more fire power than we did,” Lindsey said Wednesday. “All we had were our pistols. He fired 15, 16 rounds from an automatic weapon. ... We faced him head-on. He just looked at us right straight.”

McLendon then drove around Samson, shooting out his car window, killing three more people seemingly at random.

“He sprayed bullets through the town,” Adams said.

Myers, the grieving sheriff’s deputy, made an appeal Wednesday to tighten the country’s laws on the ownership of automatic weapons.

“As a community, as a family, as a nation, we need to do something about this,” he said.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/11/2009 at 10:40 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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