Police: Pitt gunman might have sought other victims

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

A gunman who killed a worker and shot several other people at a psychiatric hospital on the University of Pittsburgh campus lived nearby and used two semiautomatic pistols, one of them stolen, as he marched around checking offices possibly in an attempt to find more victims before campus police fatally shot him, authorities said Friday.

John Shick began shooting almost immediately upon entering the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic lobby Thursday afternoon, wearing a tan trench coat, T-shirt, jeans and two watches. He also had a fanny pack containing plastic bags with medicines police haven’t disclosed and carried a box of ammunition.

Shick, 30, fatally shot one clinic worker and wounded six other people, Pittsburgh major crimes Cmdr. Thomas Stangrecki said at a news conference.

After the initial shootings, Shick went up a stairwell to a second-floor parking area, where he apparently tried to exit but couldn’t because he didn’t have an electronic card needed to open a secure door. A window on the door was shot but didn’t shatter, suggesting Shick tried to shoot his way through.

Police believe Pitt officers, who had trained for a Virginia Tech-style shooting, encountered Shick as he came back down the stairs and into the lobby, perhaps planning to escape through the front door he had entered.

“We practice this,” Pitt campus police Chief Tim Delaney said. “A lot of these [law-enforcement techniques] came out of Virginia Tech. They engaged in gunfire as soon as they entered the front door.”

No witnesses have reported that Shick said or did anything to explain his motives, and police said they found nothing on him to indicate a reason.

Shick shot seven people, including clinic geriatric therapist Michael Schaab, 25, who was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the shooting began, the medical examiner’s office said. The surviving victims are expected to recover.