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Eight Hid in a Back Office As Macomb Gunman Fired

Eight Hid in a Back Office As Macomb Gunman Fired

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06-10-2010, 12:47 PM
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Eight Hid in a Back Office As Macomb Gunman Fired

A 19-year-old gunman opened fire inside the Farm King store in Macomb, Illinois, just before 1 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2010, then held police off for about five hours before officers found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. No one else was hurt.

Macomb Police Chief Curt Barker identified the gunman as Jonathan J. Labbe. Police said Labbe walked in carrying an unloaded rifle, got ammunition for it inside the store, then got into an argument in one of the aisles before opening fire.

Officers responding to a 911 call from an employee were met with gunshots as they tried to get inside. Barker said Labbe fired roughly 23 rounds total, about 16 of them at police near the front entrance. An estimated 50 to 100 people were in the store when the shooting started.

Eight employees and customers took shelter in a back office during the standoff. Police said no hostages were taken. Two women, two men and a small child were walked out safely around 3:30 p.m., and the rest got out safely soon after. Richard Moulton, a customer who escaped out a rear exit with his father, recalled hearing Labbe warn someone, "Get away from me if you don't want to get shot," moments before the first shots.

As a SWAT team surrounded the building that evening, Western Illinois University in Macomb told staff and faculty to steer clear of the area, though classes continued as scheduled. About five hours after the standoff began, officers found Labbe dead in the store's housewares section.

Barker said investigators found no note and no clear motive, and that Labbe had no known connection to the store. Labbe's mother, Kathleen Clauson, said she noticed her son was struggling that day and left work to look for him, only to be kept outside the store by police for hours. "He's just lost and I couldn't reach him enough, fast enough," she said, adding he had never talked about hurting anyone else.

Labbe, of the village of Tennessee in McDonough County, about nine miles from Macomb, had no history of violence that police or his family described publicly. He had received a citizens' award from Macomb police for helping catch a suspect in a drug case, volunteered at the county animal shelter and was involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters. The shooting drew scrutiny to how Illinois handles residents in a mental health crisis, and McDonough County Sheriff Rick VanBrooker later said cases like Labbe's often fall into a gap, not disturbed enough to trigger a court-ordered evaluation but still needing help, a point Tri States Public Radio explored that spring in a three-part series examining what happened to Labbe before the shooting.
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