Worker at NASA kills hostage, self
A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries.
The gunman was able to take a snub-nosed revolver past NASA security and barricade himself in the Houston building, which houses communications and tracking systems for the space shuttle, authorities said.
NASA and police identified him as 60-year-old William Phillips, an employee of Jacobs Engineering of Pasadena, Calif. He had apparently had a dispute with the slain hostage, David Beverly, a civil servant who worked at the agency. A second hostage escaped.
“Right now we’re trying to understand why this happened, how this happened,” said Michael L. Coats, director of the Johnson Space Center.
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