We had quite an incident here yesterday in the little town of Brownsville, OR, just a little north of where I live.
A 51 yr old man named Robert Earl Thompson went completely berserk, over some sort of domestic dispute involving his daughter. His girlfriend's two grandchildren were visiting him and his girlfriend during the weekend, and something made him absolutely furious and totally lose it. It appears that there is some type of family legal dispute involving his daughter, but authorities have no specific details available as of this time.
When he stopped for gas at the extremely busy Chevron station on Highway 228 in Brownsville ( they have the lowest gas price in the town, and thus have many customers ), his girlfriend escaped with her two grandchildren and fled to the service station's convenience store for safety. Thompson was screaming and yelling at people, and was also waving a 12 gauge shotgun around.
For some unknown reason, he then decided to take a hostage. A young 16 yr old girl named Nicole Street, who has only been driving a car for one month , was at the gas station buying gas, and became his target. He went up to her car, pointed his shotgun at her, and told her that he would kill her if she did not come out. He then grabbed her tightly around the throat with one hand, his shotgun still in the other, and led her around the gas station as he continued his rants.
The Linn County Sheriff's Department was alerted by numerous 911 cell phone calls from the crowded service station, and the first to arrive was 10 yr veteran command Sergeant Dave Lawler. When officer Lawler saw the hostage situation, he immediately decided to deploy his squad car's AR-15 Assault Rifle. ( Linn County had replaced the shotguns in their Sheriff's patrol cars with automatic AR-15 rifles 6 years ago ).
Thompson made all kinds of wild statements, demanding to talk to his daughter. He also demanded press coverage and also a helicopter to fly him to the city of Salem, OR, where his daughter lives. He repeatedly screamed to Lawler that unless all of his demands were met, he would kill the young girl. Thompson then fired his shotgun at Sergeant Lawler. As he and Nicole continued to struggle, he finally forced her face down on the ground, with the barrel of the shotgun still at the back of her head.
However, that move then gave Sergeant Lawler a clear shot at Thompson, and he open+ed fire with his AR-15, striking Thompson multiple times. Nicole managed to break free, and run away to safety as the final bullet from the AR-15 apparently put Thompson down for good.
Today, people in all of the surrounding communities here in Oregon are hailing Lawler as being a true hero. The Smith family has even issued a formal statement, thanking the officer for his heroic actions, and saying that he literally saved their daughter's life. There is even talk of him perhaps being nominated for an Oregon State Police Officer Medal of Valor.
Sergeant Lawler has meanwhile been placed on paid administrative leave from duty, while the shooting is being investigated as to whether it was justified or not. This is standard procedure that is done whenever an officer is involved in a fatal shooting.
Here are some news stories about the incident:
http://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8UT2C502.htmlhttp://www.dhonline.com/articles/2008/02/18/news/top_story/7aaa01_hostage.txtAnd here is a photo of Nicole being hugged by her father Len Smith, after she was safely home again with her family:
