Austria cops besiege farmhouse after suspected poacher shoots dead 3

[Syt]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/17/20538372-austria-cops-besiege-farmhouse-after-suspected-poacher-shoots-dead-3-cops-medic

Austria cops besiege farmhouse after suspected poacher shoots dead 3 cops, medic

Some 100 armed police surrounded a farmhouse in Austria on Tuesday after a suspected poacher shot dead two officers and an ambulance driver and then killed a third police officer he had taken hostage, officials said.

The suspect set fire to the building where he barricaded himself, but police assumed he was still alive, Interior Minister spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said. The situation was "still continuing" at 3:50 p.m. local time (9:50 a.m. ET), Grundboeck added.

Armed special forces units officers accompanied by an armored vehicle surrounded the farm in the village of Melk, 40 miles from the Austrian capital Vienna. 

Officers found the body of the policeman taken hostage in a nearby building, Grundboeck said. The gunman had already shot two police officers and an ambulance driver.

On Monday night, officials stopped the suspect in a forested near the Alpine ski resort of Annaberg because he had been suspected of poaching for some years, Grundboeck said.

Upon being pulled over, the man "immediately" opened fire on the two police officers, killing one of them, Grundboeck said. The shooter waited in the area until an ambulance driver arrived before opening fire again, killing the medic.

The suspect then fled the scene and was apprehended by another police team in the area, at which point he shot and killed a second officer, Grundboeck said.

The suspect then fled by car to his farmhouse in Melk, about 40 miles away, where he barricaded himself inside. Grundboeck said the body of the officer who had been taken hostage was found nearby, and police did not believe anyone else was in the building.

"We have tried to make contact with the suspect but have so far been unsuccessful," Grundboeck said earlier on Tuesday. "Police are now trying to resolve the situation."

The situation is ongoing.













(The armored vehicles were used to retrieve the hostage's body.)


Press conference.

[Ideologue]

Ban Austrians, I guess.

[CountDeMoney]

suspected poacher shoots dead 3 cops

cop season wabbit season cop season wabbit season

[Syt]

Stuff like this is pretty rare here, so it's major news. If you have a shooting, it's usually someone killing their partner, then killing themselves or getting cornered by police.I think in my 8 years in Austria, these may be the first police men killed in the line of duty.

[Syt]

suspected poacher shoots dead 3 cops

cop season wabbit season cop season wabbit season

[dps]

Ban Austrians, I guess.

Ban poaching! 

Oh, wait...

[Darth Wagtaros]

Germans are a violent, militant people. They're just getting restive since they haven't committed a genocide in a few decades.

[PRC]

Steyr AUG, always a good gun in the Rainbow Six games.

[The Brain]

Germans are a violent, militant people. They're just getting restive since they haven't committed a genocide in a few decades.

Austrians are not as violent or nazi as the Germans.

[Admiral Yi]

What's with the little kid in the track suit?

[MadImmortalMan]

Will probably end in suicide. Either self-inflicted or by cop.

[derspiess]

What's with the little kid in the track suit?

A Serbian participant in the European police exchange program, probably.

[The Minsky Moment]

When did Zach Galifianakis join the Austrian police force?

[Kleves]

3 dead? That wouldn't even make the local news here in the States. #USAnumber1

[dps]

3 dead? That wouldn't even make the local news here in the States. #USAnumber1

I nearly post a comment along those lines, which in the circumstance might be seen as a bit insensitive.

But time to move the debate on, here's my contentious viewpoint.

Why are events like the naval depot shooting getting wall to wall coverage and outpourings of public grief for the victims ?

I thought the gun debate had been won with the pro side winning, a significant majority of Americans now consistently supporting little or no change to gun rights.
Why not just accept these events are a natural consequence of having so readily available weapons. And it doesn't appear anyone or any organisation can change that. 

So why not just report these events as the 2nd or 3rd news item, give it a couple of minutes and get on reporting and considering the 'real' important news ?

That's unless there isn't some weird grief/breaking news pornography going on, where people actually gain some emotional exercise/workout from reacting to these by now fairly common events ?

I'm guessing for largely the same reasons that there's wall-to-wall coverag and outpouring of public grief for victims of natural disasters.