Aberrant RPG - 7 Dead In Attack On Rashoud Facility

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<font size="4">7 Dead In Attack On Rashoud Facility</font>

by Robert Blackwood

N! Prime Staff Writer

DALLAS -- A heavily armed man whom witnesses said had at least twice tested negative for Nova potential attacked a Rashoud facility in Dallas Monday morning.

At least seven people were reported dead in the attack, including one nova, Dr. Jay Silber, and the gunman. Sixteen more, all staffers and visitors to the facility, were wounded.

The gunman, who police identified from witness reports as Terrance Chadwick of Durant, Oklahoma, entered the facility on Garland Road at approximately 10:30 a.m., and opened fire with an assault rifle. Two people, receptionist Jenny Harlan and a clinic staffer who police did not identify, were killed immediately before Chadwick reportedly entered the interior of the clinic.

Access beyond the clinic's reception area is controlled by a security door, but the staffer who was killed was reportedly coming out the door when the attack began.

"He didn't say a word. Just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop," said Philip Scott, who was in stable condition at Baylor Memorial Hospital Friday night with gunshot wounds to the thigh, arm and shoulder. "He looked right at me. I've never seen eyes like that. So cold and disconnected, like glass. I don't think he ever blinked once."

Police say that as terrified staff dove for cover beneath desks and counters, Chadwick worked his way methodically through the ground floor of the facility, at one point stopping to reload while clinic workers reportedly begged for their lives.

Chadwick's AR-15 assault rifle, the civilian version of the military's M-16, had been modified for automatic fire, and was equipped with illegal 30-shot magazines, police said.

Silber, a Nova telepath and staff psychiatrist at the clinic, attempted to mentally subdue the gunman but apparently failed, witnesses told police. He was shot as many as eight times, and the gunman then apparently turned the weapon on himself.

Police surrounded the facility, but did not enter for more than an hour. Clinic staff who called 911 on their cellular phones were not aware that Chadwick had killed himself, and police did not want to endanger them, said Dallas Police Department spokeswoman Jerrilee Swadey.

Witnesses who asked not to be identified said that Silber did not die immediately, and might have survived had he received medical attention sooner.

No other Novas were in the facility at the time of the attack, clinic officials said.

Security guard Bill Chappelle reportedly died exchanging fire with the gunman in the clinic's main hallway while others escaped through a back door.

"Bill Chappelle is a hero," Dallas mayor Laura Miller said at a City Hall press conference Friday afternoon. "He gave his life defending innocent people, some of whom are alive today only because of his sacrifice. The city owes his family a great debt."

Also reported killed in the attack were Raju Viswanathan, 23, an intern, and Rachel Sutherland, a staff technician. The identities of the two other victims, the staffer killed in the reception area and a visitor to the clinic, were not released because their families had not yet been notified.

Cheryl Toklas was outside the clinic when the shooting began. "I saw him go in, but I didn't think there was anything wrong at first," Toklas said. "I sort of saw he was carrying something, but he was holding it down by his leg, and I didn't pay it no mind. When the shooting started I thought it was firecrackers or something at first. It didn't hit me till later what it was, when people piling out the back."

"Toklas, 48, a former Air Force corpsman, helped administer first aid to wounded victims who fled the building during and after the attack.

Toklas was also commended by the mayor during her press conference.

In addition to the assault rifle, Chadwick was armed with a TEC-9 machine pistol and two 9mm semiautomatic pistols. All were apparently purchased legally at gun shows during the last three years, according to police.

In Chadwick's green Ford Navajo, parked in front of the clinic, police found two more rifles and boxes containing more than 200 rounds of ammunition.

"This was a racist attack, born of fear and hatred. It's that simple," said Raoul Orzaiz, self-appointed spokesman of the Nova separatist group called the Teragen. "These senseless massacres will go on for as long as hate groups like the Church of Michael are suffered to exist. Only this time it was baselines who suffered the consequences."

Several pamphlets of anti-Nova literature and a copy of the Null Manifesto were reportedly found in the Durant, Oklahoma, trailer home where Chadwick lived alone. However, there was no clear evidence to connect Chadwick to the Church of Michael Archangel or any other organized anti-Nova group, in spite of Orzaiz' accusations, investigators said.

Investigators discounting Chadwick's connection to anti-Nova groups pointed to facility records that showed that Chadwick had gone to the clinic at least twice in the past three years to be tested for Mazarin-Rashoud Node latency. Both tests came back negative, clinic staff told police.

Witness reports could not be confirmed that Chadwick also showed up at the facility last week asking to see Silber, who was out of town at the time.

Chadwick's parents, who live in Midland, Texas, refused comment. Police said they were still investigating, but at this time do not consider the parents to be connected to the attack.