Massacre gunman kills himself (Texas)

[Judi Lynn]

Tue, Aug 30 05

Massacre gunman kills himself

A GUNMAN opened fire in a rural Texas church, killed four people and later shot himself dead after a nine-hour standoff with police.

Gunman AP Penshaw had words with two members of Assembly of God church in the church parking lot on Sunday night in Sash, Texas, after which the two men asked him to leave. Crenshaw went to his nearby house then returned with a gun and shot the two men dead. One was the church pastor.

Crenshaw then drove to an intersection, where he randomly killed two women in a truck towing a horse trailer after they tried to flee and hide.

He was chased to his house near the church, where, after a nine-hour siege with a SWAT team, he shot himself dead.
(snip/)

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=30&si=1459014&issue_id=12931
(Free registration required)

(That's the entire article.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Longer article in the Guardian:Texas Gunman Kills 4 in Church, Then Self

Texas Gunman Kills 4 in Church, Then Self

Monday August 29, 2005 10:46 PM


By ANABELLE GARAY

Associated Press Writer

SASH, Texas (AP) - A gunman killed four people near a small-town church, then killed himself early Monday after a nine-hour standoff with police, authorities said.

Police said witnesses told them that A.P. ``Fred'' Cranshaw, who lived across the street from the Sash Assembly of God church, exchanged words in the church parking lot Sunday night with church member Wes Brown, who asked Cranshaw to leave.

Cranshaw returned a short time later and shot Brown, 61, at close range, and then shot the pastor, James Armstrong, 42, the witnesses said. Deputies found both men dead in a grassy area next to the parking lot, Fannin County Sheriff Kenneth Moore said.

Cranshaw then drove to an intersection, where he shot at a truck towing a horse trailer and then killed the two women in the truck after they tried to flee and hide, witnesses told police.
(snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5241647,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. This is a little unsettling.......

From the Guardian article:

Pior said he believes Cranshaw would have attacked him and his wife if they had been home at the time of the killings. He said he had started carrying a gun when he mowed his yard in case of a confrontation with Cranshaw.
(snip)

Who could LIVE like that indefinitely, carrying a gun to mow a lawn?

Is Texas so far into the Twilight Zone this is considered normal?

[Mairead]

6. More than a little...

Cranshaw went mad -- his outburst before he started shooting was a textbook example of paranoid psychosis, really. He'd no doubt been decompensating through the year, making people around him, like Pior, nervous. But the US has no useful mechanisms for getting someone like that the help he needs before he loses his grip completely and kills someone.

About the only thing to be thankful for, if that's the right word, is that he used a pistol rather than tossing a firebomb into the church during services.

[MrBenchley]

7. Tragic really....

"But the US has no useful mechanisms for getting someone like that the help he needs"
There's no useful way to keep him from getting his hands on a gun, either....in Texas, he could have bought a gun at any gun show and avoided even a background check....

[Mairead]

10. As I pointed out, it's better that he chose a gun than a firebomb

Firebombs were favorite in Northern Ireland among those who didn't have ready access to paramilitary stockpiles.

[MrBenchley]

12. That's small consolation

and hardly an excuse to let loonies like this get their hands on guns.....

[Mairead]

13. That sounds very absolutist. (nt)

[MrBenchley]

14. Oh, no....not absolutist! (snicker)

God forbid anything ever interfere with gun industry profits....especially not sanity or public safety.

[Demeter]

8. After Seeing Bush In Action...You Have to Ask?

They "elected" him as governor, remember.

[rainbow4321]

9. Did the dismembered girl (bathtub) in Austin make the news??

I only heard about it cuz I was down there dropping my daughter off at UT for her freshman year.


The alleged killer was a UT student..his apt that was near UT.
The girl that cops say helped him evade police was also a UT student.


http://www.dailytexanonline.com/media/paper410/news/2005/08/29/TopStories/Student.Arrested.In.Cave.Case-971139.shtml

Austin police on Friday arrested the UT student who they say fled to Mexico with murder suspect Colton Pitonyak Aug. 17.

Laura Hall, a UT government senior, is charged with hindering apprehension, a third-degree felony. Bond has been set at $175,000, said police department spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz.

Pitonyak, a UT finance junior, is charged with the first-degree murder of Jennifer Cave, 21, who was found dead in Pitonyak's West Campus apartment Aug. 18. Austin police found Cave with gunshot and stab wounds and severed limbs.

Pitonyak's bail is set at $1 million, and his lawyer, Samuel Bassett, said he will plead not guilty. Pitonyak has been under suicide watch since he was apprehended early Tuesday. Maverick Country Sheriff Tomas Herrera said jail officials checked on Pitonyak about every 15 minutes.


http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=3771740&nav=0s3ddo8G

Austin Police have charged 21-year-old UT senior Laura Hall with "hindering the apprehension of suspected killer Colton Pitonyak.

He's is accused of shooting, stabbing and mutilating 21-year-old Jennifer Cave after a dinner date.


That conversation as stated in the arrest warrant was "The explained to her that Colton did not merit loyalty because he was an 'axe-murderer' who had killed a person that both and Hall knew. Ms. Hall told that he should not be judging Colton and that 'It was an accident.'"

[geckosfeet]

2. This is nuts. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

4. Houston Chronicle's version of this story.......

Aug. 29, 2005, 3:08PM

Shooting rampage at church ends with 5 dead
By TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

A nine-hour standoff ended this morning when a gunman who killed four people near a church in the North Texas town of Sash killed himself, authorities said.

For the past year, Garland transplant Frederick Leroy Cranshaw kept to his side of Sash's Farm-to-Market 100, collecting and repairing old car radios in the back of his home, less than 50 yards from his nearest neighbors across the road: the Assembly of God Church.

But Sunday evening, just as it turned dark in this small community 120 miles north of Dallas, Cranshaw crossed the street, yelling at Pastor James Wayne Armstrong, 42, his wife and another couple as the four talked in the yard, an official said today.

"This guy's shouting obscenities and said he's sick and tired of putting up with them and their persecutions," said Fannin County Justice of the Peace Emery Banker.

Pastor Armstrong yelled back at the Cranshaw, telling him not to use such language around the two women present. Cranshaw then pulled out a weapon, Banker said, and began spraying the group with a 38-caliber handgun.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3329303

[orleans]

5. yee-ha! n/t

[lonestarnot]

11. Probably an exposed bushitler.