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Title: Parent nearly shot as sniper
Source:
The Salt Lake Tribune
URL Source: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_4496009
Published: Oct 15, 2006
Author: Jeremiah Stettler
Post Date: 2006-10-15 18:53:02 by Fibr Dog
Keywords: None
Views: 65
Comments: 2
MIDVALE - The SWAT team sniper chambered a round, fixed his cross hairs on the suspected gunman at a Midvale youth football game Saturday and clicked off his safety. The suspect paced anxiously on the rooftop of Midvale Middle School, peering frequently over the wall at a football field clogged with hundreds of parents and players. Police say James Kranz intended to shoot all right, but not with a gun. The amateur cameraman, a Sandy father of five, had scaled the school wall with a ladder about 1 p.m. as teams prepared for a youth football game. He toted a long, slender bag on his back - a lawn chair - that a neighbor mistook for a rifle case and called police. High above the competition, Kranz planned to shoot video of two of his children playing football. But the parent's rooftop roost led to the evacuation of hundreds of young athletes and spectators as police and SWAT team members descended on the school to apprehend a possible sniper. Although uncertain about the threat at first, Midvale police sniper J. Guenon said Kranz's behavior grew increasingly suspicious, and his location seemed superb for hitting anything below. "I observed him pacing back and forth nervously, constantly looking," he said. "As a sniper, if I were to cause havoc, the spot he was at would have been the perfect spot." Two police officers had spotted the man from inside the school. From a second-story window, they ordered him to surrender. "Get down!" they shouted. "Get on the ground! Show us your hands!" Instead, Kranz turned and walked away, police say. "We thought this person did have a rifle," said Midvale police Sgt. Gregg Olsen. "The way he was acting was very, very suspicious to us. When he refused to comply with the two officers who were trying to get him to go down on his knees and show his hands, we felt there was an absolute threat." Referees already had cleared much of the football field, ushering people into a parking lot that would separate them from the suspected shooter by a row of cars. Andres Dominguez, a Midvale parent, reported hearing someone screaming, "Shooting! Shooting!" when officials ordered the field cleared. He was skeptical, but followed fans off the field. Another spectator spotted SWAT team members scanning the rooftop with rifles and figured that this wasn't a false alarm. "When I saw the police looking through their scopes, following this guy across the roof, I thought it was for real," said Ron Watkins, of Salt Lake City. Instead of complying with police, Kranz hurried to the south side of the building and climbed down. Two officers with rifles greeted him below. Authorities ticketed Kranz for trespassing, then ordered him off the school grounds. Kranz, 43, said later he never heard police, and he thought the two officers shouting to him from a window were janitors. He said he was fiddling with his camera, which he often uses to film the games for the teams, and didn't notice anything unusual. "I humbly apologize to officials, to the teams, parents and children," Kranz said. " . . . It was nothing but an utter embarrassment." The police handled the matter "professionally and perfectly," he said. "I would have carried it out the same way if I were them." And yet the school-top stunt could have killed him. Authorities say even the sound of a car backfiring could have triggered a deadly encounter. "We're here to try to protect the public," Olsen said. "If we had perceived any type of a shot coming from there, our sniper probably would have taken him out." "I humbly apologize to officials, to the teams, parents and children . . . It was nothing but an utter embarrassment."
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#1. To: Fibr Dog (#0)
"He's got a handgun! Shoot! Shoot!" The average police officer's IQ is 104. The country would be better off with about 75% of them finding other jobs.
"We become what we behold. We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." -- Marshall McLuhan, after Alexander Pope and William Blake.
If there were no war on drugs 75% of them WOULD have other jobs. Instead they are enemies of the American family.
How many observe Christ's birthday! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments. Benjamin Franklin
#2. To: YertleTurtle (#1)
The average police officer's IQ is 104. The country would be better off with about 75% of them finding other jobs.
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