Shooter arrested in Orlando office rampage
A British report on the South Alabama shooting spree.
Yesterday, in South Alabama, a 28-year-old man named Michael McLendon went full-blown psycho. He killed a number of his own family members, but it looks like Michael didn't really discriminate after a while - anyone was fair game. When all was said and done, 11 people were dead by his hand - including the killer himself. The following is brief timeline of McLendon's spree:
* Around 4 p.m. - Michael McLendon kills his girlfriend, mother Lisa and Lisa McLendon's 4 dogs at the residence he shares with them. He sets the house on fire.
* 4 to 4:15 approximate - McLendon, driving his Mitsubishi Eclipse, travels east to the town of Samson, in Geneva County. He is extremely well-armed, weapons include an automatic rifle and a shotgun. Just outside Samson, McLendon shoots his grandmother, grandfather, aunt and uncle.
* McLendon also kills a man who lived in a mobile home on his grandparents' property
* 4 to 4:15 approx. - McLendon goes to his grandparents' neighbor across the street. He shoots and kills 31-year-old Andrea Myers, the wife of a local sheriff's deputy, and her toddler daughter. Another child is injured and taken to a Florida medical facility. [Andrea Myers's MySpace profile. One of her posted songs: Blue Oyster Cult, "Don't Fear the Reaper."]
* 4:15 to 4:30 approx. - McLendon has a confrontation with a State Trooper while traveling down Highway 52 into Samson proper. The Trooper suffers only minor injuries. Seven bullets hit the Trooper's vehicle.
* Same timespan - McLendon kills two people, apparently at random: woman a the Big-Little Store on Hwy. 52 and a man at the Samson Pipe Supply.
* 4:20 to 4:30 approx. - McLendon fires shots at random into a Wal-Mart on Hwy. 52. A local sheriff rams his vehicle. The sheriff is shot in the shoulder. He drives himself to the hospital.
* Around 4:30 - Michael McLendon is in the parking lot of Reliable Metal Products, where he once worked. He fires at least 30 rounds at law enforcement. McLendon enters the business, commits suicide. Twelve people dead in less than an hour.
This timeline may be updated and revised for accuracy.
Sources: CNN, CNN.com, AFP.







Apparently he also killed his girlfriend, so that makes 12 - she was found inside his mother's house, which he torched.
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=9982408&nav=menu50_1_2
Posted 03/11/2009 at 11:09:03 AMCorrection: Link to MySpace should read Andrea Myers (not McLendon).
NOTE FROM STEVE: Thanks - I fixed it.
Posted 03/11/2009 at 01:15:33 PMWhy?
Posted 03/11/2009 at 05:11:15 PMAll those people. And dogs too! What the heck happened? Did something just snap? I want to know what he was like before this happened. Were there any other signs? It is really scary to think that people can just snap like that and just start killing innocent people.
Posted 03/11/2009 at 05:29:00 PMBetween this and that jackass over in Germany shooting all those people, I'm feeling old today. I remember being an angry, stupid young man too, but whatever happened to drinking and smoking yourself into a stupor while writing really awful heavy metal 'songs' about how much the world sucks?
I grew up with gun-loving farm kids out in rural Oregon, and while fights and even an occasional minor cut with a pocketknife were fairly commonplace (no serious injuries, suspensions and an occasional expulsion were the worst results) no one was ever the victim of a shooting - and we had kids bring guns to school to clean them in the metal shop or as part of a Halloween costume. Yes, this was long, long before Columbine. Dunno what my point is here, really, I just thought I'd note that.
Hell with it - I'm turning off the news and re-watching 'Slap Shot' to bring my mood back up. The world of senseless murder will have to do without any further jaundiced scrutiny by myself for today.
Posted 03/11/2009 at 07:41:10 PMPeople don't understand that there's a battle between good and evil in all of us...some of us just loose the battle.
Posted 03/12/2009 at 10:48:17 AMA British report on the South Alabama shooting spree?? A british REPORT .I would think you would use something more local .I can tell by your postings your not woking too hard!
Posted 03/12/2009 at 06:57:54 PM12 dead in 30 minutes, with travel involved. That's scary.
Posted 03/13/2009 at 03:45:49 PMthat shit is messed up. people might snap and kill one or two but there must of been something up with his family cause he went out of the way to kill them.
Posted 03/14/2009 at 05:17:22 AMHe didn't use an automatic rifle. He used a semi-automatic SKS. An automatic fires multiple rounds with a single trigger pull, a semi-auto only fires one.
Posted 04/05/2009 at 11:50:41 PMAutomatic firearms are heavily regulated in the US.
Please correct that.
The guy killed 10 people and then turned the gun on himself to make a total of 11 people dead that horrific day.
Posted 08/05/2009 at 04:47:00 PM