Memphis Blues
Published September 18, 2003
He was 26 years old and from Memphis, Tennessee. On September 17 he decided to drive 80 miles to commit suicide and hold 15 people hostage.
Harold Kilpatrick, Jr., 26, took about 15 people hostage at about 12:50 p.m. CST, but then released four of them, said Lisa McDowell, Dyersburg Police spokeswoman. He was holding them in a second-floor classroom of the Eller building, McDowell said.
Kilpatrick is from Memphis but had recently been staying with his sister in Dyersburg, McDowell said. He was neither a student at the community college, nor did he work there, she said.
The Dyersburg Police Special Operations Response Team and hostage negotiation team were addressing the man through the classroom wall, she said. Kilpatrick told police he wanted to commit suicide and left a suicide note, Williamson said.
He said the man was believed to have a 9 mm handgun and barricaded the classroom's doors.
Earlier, Kilpatrick was refusing to negotiate with authorities and would only talk to them using his hostages as intermediaries on cell phones, Williamson said.
Later in the evening, though, McDowell said the suspect began talking with police and even ordered pizzas and sodas to share with his hostages.
The chief said the man claimed to be a member of al Qaeda, and the FBI had been informed of the claim.
"I don't know about that, but that's his story," Williamson said, shaking his head.
VIA: CNN
- Memphis Blues
- Published: September 18, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Dew
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The whole thing sounds suspicious. Although his family says he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.
Supposedly, he was denied financial aid to DSCC and that upset him. He and his girlfriend got into a fight at work (FedEx) recently that cost him his job and resulted in the five charges against him for which he failed to appear in court yesterday. That resulted in the warrants, which sent him fleeing, suicidal, to Dyersburg from Memphis.
He supposedly was mentally ill and had stopped taking his meds recently, and was growing agitated. One of the hostages late last night slipped out of the classroom which further agitated him; he fired a warning shot at the ceiling for the rest of the hostages.
Police heard the shot and, on standing orders to move if they heard gunfire, stormed the classroom. It's not yet announced, I think, if he died of a self-inflicted wound or from police fire. Same for the two wounded hostages.
The man was a mess, sad to say. Police appear to have done all the right things. The Al-Qaeda stuff appears to have been bluster on his part to draw more attention to himself.
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http://halfbakered.blogspot.com/2003_09_14_halfbakered_archive.html#106383717833880219
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Very weird, the police killed him whe nhe started shooting in the classroom - two hostages wounded