Family Research Center Shooting

[NotNow]

This has been really quiet in the news.  Comments?



Floyd Lee Corkins charged in Family Research Council shooting
Family Research Council security guard shot: A security guard a was shot and wounded after a scuffle with a man who expressed disagreement with the group’s conservative views.

The man authorities say was angry with the conservative stance of the Family Research Council and shot the group’s unarmed security guard in a downtown D.C. office was ordered by a judge Thursday to undergo a mental evaluation.

An FBI affidavit quotes 28-year-old Floyd Lee Corkins II of Herndon telling the guard, “I don’t like your politics” as he pulled a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol from a backpack he had carried with him on Metrorail from East Falls Church.

An armed man walked into the Washington headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group Wednesday and was confronted by a security guard, whom he shot in the arm before the guard and others wrestled him to the ground, authorities said.

D.C. police said that Corkins shot the guard, Leonardo R. Johnson, 46, once in the arm and that Johnson, though wounded, helped subdue the suspect and wrestle the gun from him in the building’s lobby on G Street NW.

In his bag, court documents say, police found 50 rounds of ammunition and 15 sandwiches from Chick-fil-A, which combined with the suspect’s statement added a political dimension to the shooting.

The head of the Atlanta-based fast-food chain has spoken out against same-sex marriage, a stance embraced by the Family Research Council. Corkins had been volunteering at a U Street NW support center for the gay community.

On Thursday, D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and the head of the FBI’s District field office visited Johnson’s 72-year-old mother and 102-year-old grandmother at their house in Southeast Washington, and they credited him with preventing a tragedy.

In an interview, Virginia Johnson said she was proud of her son for subduing the gunman and “so happy” to hear the District’s police chief call him a hero.

“I’m sorry for what happened and the way he got hurt,” Virginia Johnson said. She spoke with her son when he called from a hospital moments after she saw news of the shooting on television newscasts.

“Yes, I’d say he was a hero,” she said.

Meanwhile, in U.S. District Court, prosecutors charged Corkins with assault with intent to kill while armed and interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition. Assistant U.S. Attorney George P. Varghese requested a 24-hour mental evaluation of Corkins, which was granted by Magistrate Judge Alan Kay.

Corkins appeared in a white prison jumpsuit, walking into the courtroom quietly between two U.S. marshals. His right eye was blackened and swollen. As Kay outlined the charges against him, he stood and twirled his thumbs with his hands behind his back.

Kay asked Corkins whether he had enough money to pay for an attorney; he said he did not. “I have about $300,” Corkins said in a soft, clear voice.

During the proceedings, which lasted about 20 minutes, the judge ordered Corkins held without bond until a hearing scheduled for next Friday.

At a news conference Thursday, the president of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, condemned what he called “reckless rhetoric” that labels his organization a “hate group,” saying it incited the shooting.

The Family Research Council’s Web site says it deals in issues of faith, family and freedom; opposes abortion and euthanasia; and considers homosexuality a sin. Perkins told reporters that his group might not have been the only target. But he and his spokesmen declined to elaborate.

“I think maybe, going forward, you may find out more information that we may not have been the only one,” Perkins said in response to a question about why his group was targeted.

Lanier declined to comment on the statement, as did an FBI spokesman, Andrew Ames.

An armed man walked into the Washington headquarters of a conservative Christian lobbying group Wednesday and was confronted by a security guard, whom he shot in the arm before the guard and others wrestled him to the ground, authorities said.

In support of the federal charges, authorities said the gun and ammunition were transported across state lines. Police said they found Corkins’s Dodge Neon parked at the East Falls Church Metro station.

No one answered the door at Corkins’s home Thursday. The FBI affidavit says agents interviewed Corkins’s parents, who said their son “has strong opinions with respect to those he believes do not treat homosexuals in a fair manner.”

FBI officials have not commented on a possible motive in the shooting.

Perkins said he visited Johnson shortly after he emerged from surgery after midnight Wednesday and reported him groggy but in good spirits.

“This hero business is hard work,” Perkins said Johnson told him.

He said Johnson was more than a guard and was also in charge of building services. Not only did he staff the lobby, he meet with top officials and was briefed on threats and planned protests.

Perkins said Johnson, at the time of the confrontation, was unarmed and was wearing a suit, not a uniform.

Joe Carter, a senior editor of Action Institute, a Michigan-based group that focuses on the economy from a Christian perspective, said he knew Johnson from working at the Family Research Council from 2006 to 2008.

“He was the guy who quietly took care of things,” Carter said.“If someone came into the lobby to do something, they weren’t going to get past Leo.”

Johnson’s mother said she saw the story unfold on TV news and knew even before his name became public that it was her son who had been shot. By the time he called her from the hospital, Virginia Johnson said, “I was crying. I was upset. He was trying to calm me down.”

Virginia Johnson said her son, her only child, graduated from Ballou High School in Southeast and went into the security business. “He’s just a good person who tried to help people and never got into trouble,” she said.

In an interview with WJLA-TV (Channel 7), Leonardo Johnson said from his hospital room that Corkins shot him without warning and that he tackled Corkins without realizing that he had been shot. “I didn’t feel any pain,” he told the station. “I felt my arm snap back so I knew I was hit, but I didn’t feel any pain. . . . Although I didn’t want to get shot, nobody wants to get shot, I feel that God put me in a position to be there at that time.”

At the news conference, Perkins singled out the Southern Poverty Law Center for putting his organization on a list of hate groups, saying that gave the gunman “a license to shoot an unarmed man,” and he urged that the law center be “held accountable for their reckless use of terminology.”

The law center, in a statement, called the accusation outrageous and said the Family Research Council was ”seeking an opportunity to score points” by using the shooting for political purposes.



Mike DeBonis, Justin Jouvenal and Allison Klein contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/mother-of-security-guard-shot-in-dc-happy-to-hear-him-called-hero/2012/08/16/531ed060-e7a1-11e1-8487-64e4b2a79ba8_story_1.html

[NotNow]

No.  Have any democrat talking points to discuss?  Or are the instructions to just be quiet about this?

[officerk]

This was yet another case of a Zealot slipping a cog and doing no favors for his "cause."
This guy was no better than the jerks that bomb abortion clinics.  There are ways to protest, this level of violence is not it. 
As far as the gun control issue - DC has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation - Criminals don't adhere to the laws... go figure?

[ChriswUfGator]

DC's former ban on firearms was struck down by SCOTUS 3 years ago, you can own firearms there legally now. With that said, the results are certainly different with a run of the mill pistol instead of assault weapons. One guy got shot and lived.

[Dog Walker]

Were the fifteen Chick-fil-A sandwiches some sort of political statement?  Maybe he didn't know what the Family Research Council supported and got things backward.

[Midway ®]

No.  Have any democrat talking points to discuss?  Or are the instructions to just be quiet about this?

Most law enforcement management types do support some form of gun control simply because they think that it may reduce lethal violence directed at their personnel.

But not not now. He enjoys the swashbuckling excitement of street gun violence  not now I didn't know you had a thrill seeker personality type. 

[Ocklawaha]

If guns had never been invented, baseball bats would have been used. In a world without guns but populated by the same people, kitchen knifes would be the weapon of choice, in an advanced society without guns antifreeze would have been slipped into the drinking fountain... So there you have it, let's control baseball bats, knifes and antifreeze and the world will be peaceful.

Criminals and the criminally insane will always find a way to hurt, maim or kill other people and no amount of 'law and order' is going to stop them from their deed.

Fact is you can take the deadliest assault rifle in the world and lay it on a rock and if were possible to return to that rock in 10,000 years, the remains of that rifle would still be laying there.

[avonjax]

No.  Have any democrat talking points to discuss?  Or are the instructions to just be quiet about this?

Well it's obviously a conspiracy by the evil left wing media backed by godless Hollywood.
I saw the report on both local and National news though.
and of course the internet.

[avonjax]

Oh and speaking of godless Hollywood, the right should love them. They advocate guns and violence on a daily basis. You would think Teddy Nuge and all his wacko gun lovers would be praising them.

[avonjax]

And speaking of Teddy Nuge, I should have know when I saw him in concert wearing a chicken outfit, or he was covered with feathers or something that the guy was some kind of nut bag.

[Ocklawaha]

The focus on weapons rather then actions and the Ill's of modern society is part of the problem here. If the guy with a rock wanted to kill someone, and the guy with the machine gun didn't, there isn't any reason to run from or take on the guy with the gun. If it's the other way around, the intent to kill is exactly the same, and neither the rock nor gun took any action by themselves. It's killers that kill, and having law abiding citizens give up their guns won't change that. If we had 'rock control' and gathered every rock we could find behind closed doors, someone would use a club.

At it's very best, gun control will only remove guns from peaceful, law abiding citizens. Can't you just imagine Bonnie and Clyde showing up at the local police station and handing in their guns because of some new law? Absolute control of firearms will only result in more violence as it would create a huge black-market, in the end being about as effective as prohibition or marijuana laws.

[acme54321]

so ock, in a crowded room, would you prefer to take on a guy with a rock or a guy with a submachine gun?

Stephen,  submachines guns are very illegal, unless the owner has shelled out thousands to obtain one of the few legal examples.  So not sure how that applies to your argument.  I don't see where Ock mentioned a rock used as a weapon either.

[finehoe]

This has been really quiet in the news.  Comments?

Quiet?  It was on the front page of the Washington Post the next day, and they've published 14 other articles since then.

The New York Times also covered it.

[BridgeTroll]

The focus on weapons rather then actions and the Ill's of modern society is part of the problem here. If the guy with a rock wanted to kill someone, and the guy with the machine gun didn't, there isn't any reason to run from or take on the guy with the gun. If it's the other way around, the intent to kill is exactly the same, and neither the rock nor gun took any action by themselves. It's killers that kill, and having law abiding citizens give up their guns won't change that. If we had 'rock control' and gathered every rock we could find behind closed doors, someone would use a club.

At it's very best, gun control will only remove guns from peaceful, law abiding citizens. Can't you just imagine Bonnie and Clyde showing up at the local police station and handing in their guns because of some new law? Absolute control of firearms will only result in more violence as it would create a huge black-market, in the end being about as effective as prohibition or marijuana laws.

im sorry, i didnt hear the answer to that question?

it seems pretty simple:

so ock, in a crowded room, would you prefer to take on a guy with a rock or a guy with a submachine gun?

its so quiet in here guys.

Why doesnt anyone want to answer this question?

Is it magic?

Why do we need to "take somebody on"?  Is there a unstable person or criminal in the room?

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

its so quiet in here guys.

Why doesnt anyone want to answer this question?

Is it magic?

First I'd take on the guy with the rock, damn the consequences, fire the torpedos.  When gun-toting guy comes over to see what the hell is going on, I'll reach under my coat for my (legal) concealed Glock sitting nicely in it's holster, fire a single shot into gtg's left knee at point blank range, grab his gun off of the floor point both the pistol and the rifle in the air, let out a shrill, apache war cry and run out of the back door into my waiting batmobile.

Question answered.