Noah Harpham
Heavy dot com
A 33-year-old man has been named as the crazed gunman who randomly killed three people in broad daylight on Halloween before being fatally shot by police, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports.
Noah Harpham, a Colorado Springs resident, battled addiction and recently authored rambling blogs about his father and religion, the Gazette reports.
The shootings happened Saturday at about 8:45 a.m., Colorado Springs Police said. The gunman was heavily armed as he walked down the street. He shot a bicyclist first, and then killed two women, KKTV reports. He was then chased by responding officers and gunned down in a shootout. Police have been tight-lipped about the case, refusing to provide details or identities of those involved until autopsies are completed.
Harpham has no criminal record, except for a 2003 speeding ticket in Oregon.
Great. All we have to do is deny gun purchase to anyone who has had a speeding ticket in the last 12 years and this will never happen again.
ReplyDeleteGreat, TS--now you're giving him ideas ;-).
DeleteMy posts about "dangerous lawful gun owners" are not to say we could have stopped them. They're just to say you guys are kidding yourselves with all the bullshit about good guys with guns.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWell, more information is coming out about this incident and as normally happens, its somewhere in between the two extremes of perception. It turns out that the police were dispatched as a result of the call regarding the carrying of a rifle.
And it looks like the Mayor of the town is actually taking time to think about things and not making unthinking statements or changes.
"Five days after a rifle-toting assailant stormed a Colorado Springs neighborhood, Mayor John Suthers said he sees no reason to restrict residents' ability to openly carry firearms.
"What your open carry laws are don't dictate what your violent crime rate is," Suthers said."
"At least 10 minutes before Saturday's shooting spree began, a neighbor saw Noah Harpham, 33, carrying a rifle and gas cans outside the house where he lived. He also approached at least one other home, 911 recordings show.
About halfway into the 911 call, the operator referenced Colorado's open carry law."
"Well, it is an open carry state, so he can have a weapon with him or walking around with it," the 911 operator said. "But of course, having those gas cans, it does seem pretty suspicious. So we're going to keep the call going for that."
Officers didn't respond until after the first shots rang out at 8:55 a.m.
The call was first given a priority three status, then upgraded to priority two and filed as a possible burglary, according to Colorado Springs police."
"Suthers called the shootings a "community tragedy - a very, very sad situation."
But Suthers - the state's former attorney general - said the Police Department and the 911 operator appeared to act appropriately, and assigned the proper priority to each call.
He also said banning residents' ability to openly carry firearms would do little for public safety.
"When I look around the country, what the open-carry laws are, are not generally a reflection of what the community's violent crime rates are," Suthers said.
"I personally do not have an appetite for" tightening open carry laws, he added."
http://gazette.com/colorado-springs-mayor-has-no-appetite-for-changing-citys-open-carry-law/article/1562684
A great case tp prove, how do we know who is a bad guy and who is a good guy. These killings might have been avoided if the cops took the 911 call seriously. This is the way society works with SS's theory that one should not call 911 unless they know the threat. By then it's to late, not to mention defining threat is the cops job.
ReplyDeleteThese killings might have been avoided if the cops took the 911 call seriously. This is the way society works with SS's theory that one should not call 911 unless they know the threat.
DeleteHowdy Anon, I'm going to assume you wrote your post before my most recent post was posted by Mike. As you can see in my most recent post, the police were dispatched after the 911 operator spoke with the neighbor. The operator did the job as trained.
In fact, not only was the police dispatched immediately, but in light of the information collected by the operator, the priority of the call was raised.
"By then it's to late, not to mention defining threat is the cops job."
Well, do you suppose that it would help if the operator defined the threat of the guy carrying a rifle as opposed to a handgun for instance? Pretty much all 911 operators do this as part of their job.