College Station + Mosque Shootings

Three are dead in a mass shooting in Texas today, and a mosque came under attack in Illinois on Friday.

Early reports told of the police taking a man into custody on Monday, August 13, 2012, after "multiple people" were shot near Texas A&M University, a police official said. Someone using automatic weapons was shooting people from a residence.

Local news station KBTX is reporting "multiple casualties are involved."

"Longtime law enforcement officer Brian Bachmann was shot in killed while serving paperwork at a home in College Station early this afternoon. The suspect, whose name has not yet been released, also died, but not before shooting several others, including a College Station police officer who was shot in the leg, according to authorities. The officer was in 'stable' condition and expected to survive," according to The Eagle.

The latest is that three are dead. The constable, a civilian, and the suspect are reported to have died by gunfire. (How the reports went from "suspect in custody" to "suspect has been killed," is unknown.)

The shooter Thomas Alton Caffal (pictured above) posted several kinds of guns on his Facebook page.

KXAN has this final information:

A Brazos County constable and a male civilian were killed in College Station when a gunman, identified as Thomas Alton Caffal, 35, opened fire near the Texas A&M campus Monday. The gunman later died from wounds when officers returned fire.
College Station Assistant Police Chief Scott McCollum said a total of five people -- including Caffal -- were shot. The gunman was taken into custody before he died at the hospital, officials said. Officer Justin Oehlke was shot in the leg, underwent surgery, and was in stable condition Monday night.
Two other officers required medical attention. They were identifed as officers Brad Smith and Phil Dorsett.
The constable who was killed was identified as Brian Bachmann, 41. Officials said the 18-year law enforcement veteran died at the hospital.

Several law enforcement officers were among the people shot, Rhonda Seaton of the College Station Police Department told CNN. She didn't have information on how many people were shot or their conditions.

She said a person identified as the gunman was in custody. The shooting happened about one block from campus, Seaton said.

The university had warned people to stay away from the intersection of Welborn Road (!) and George Bush Drive (!) as well as part of Fidelity Drive (!) in College Station, Texas. The crime scene is near the football stadium, Kyle Field.

CNN is reporting at 2:30 pm CDT that it may have been an eviction that turned into a mass shooting.

College Station and Texas A&M University drew national attention, tragically, when 12 people were killed and 27 injured when the Aggie Bonfire collapsed while being constructed in 1999.

Meanwhile, a shooting occurred on Friday in the Chicago, resulting in no injuries but an arrest, according to this partial Daily News story:

A 51-year-old man has been arrested for shooting at a Chicago-area mosque with a pellet rifle Friday, as hundreds prayed inside, authorities said.
David Conrad faces felony charges of aggravated discharge of a firearm and criminal damage to property after he allegedly took multiple shots at an outer wall of the Muslim Education Center mosque in Morton Grove, Ill., NBC 5 reported.
Police later seized a "high-velocity air rifle" at Conrad's home, which is located just next to the mosque's parking lot.
Nearly 500 worshippers were in the mosque at the time of the shooting celebrating the holy month of Ramadan.
"This last week of Ramadan is the holiest week of the year for Muslims, and the shots were fired at 8:30, a little after sunset, the busiest time of the day when Muslims come to the mosque to break their long day fast and pray together," MEC President Dr. Mohammad Aleemuddin said in a statement released by the Chicago Council on American-Islamic Relations.
A security guard at the center was the first to hear the pellets hit the mosque, Morton Grove police Chief Mark Erickson told the Chicago Tribune.
***
The incident came just hours after CAIR released a statement expressing concern that recent comments made by Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) would increase targeting of Illinois Muslims, The Huffington Post reported.
At a town hall meeting in Elk Grove Village, Ill. last week, Walsh said that there's "a radical strain of Islam in this country…trying to kill Americans every week," describing it as a "real threat that is much more at home now than it was after 9/11," according to CBS Chicago.
Rehab blasted Walsh's comments in a statement released Friday.
"When elected officials, trusted by many, indicate that the enemy could be any Muslim living in your neighborhood, it gives rise to xenophobic vigilantism where fearful citizens target other Americans for simply looking different," Rehab said.

[Thanks to JDC for Illinois news.]