Austin Police chief Acevedo said he was willing to speculate that the current “heated” political discourse on immigration issues “might have fed into some of this.”
November 28, 2014

Gee, I wonder got this guy so worked up. Maybe Sean Hannity, who's so angry about the possiblity of media frenzies getting people worked up enough to kill people, can explain it to me?

A gunman in Austin opened fire Friday on “multiple downtown buildings” — including a federal courthouse, the Mexican consulate and Austin Police Department headquarters — before dying of a gunshot wound, according to officials in the Texas capital. Authorities initially said the man, identified as 49-year-old Larry McQuilliams, had been shot and killed by police, but said later that they were still investigating the possibility that he died of a self-inflicted wound.

Authorities are still investigating a possible motive. But Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters Friday that, based on his own experience and the suspect’s targets, “the national debate about immigration right now…certainly comes to mind.”

Describing the suspect’s actions as “violent anti-everything behavior, anti-government behavior if you will,” Acevedo said he was willing to speculate that the current “heated” political discourse on immigration issues “might have fed into some of this.”

While firing at the Mexican consulate, the suspect also attempted to “ignite” the building using small cylinders of fuel used by campers, Acevedo said.

The Mexican Foreign Ministry expressed its “deep concern and condemnation of the incident” in a statement, according to Reuters.

Acevedo said McQuilliams had a criminal record.

Austin police said at an earlier news briefing that they had killed the suspected shooter near his vehicle, which officials believed at the time might have contained an explosive device. A bomb squad team investigated both the vehicle and the suspected gunman’s vest, assistant police chief Raul Munguia said at an early morning briefing.

Acevedo, the police chief, later told reporters that both the suspect’s vest and the vehicle were cleared by the bomb squad and that police were still investigating whether the suspect died from police gunfire, from a self-inflicted wound, or from a combination of both.

Shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time, 911 dispatchers started receiving calls about an active shooter in downtown Austin. The gunman targeted the courthouse first, and then the Mexican consulate, before heading to police headquarters, Acevedo said. In all, Acevedo said, McQuilliams fired more than 100 rounds during the shooting spree, police said.

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