Webloggin » Arkansas Democratic Party Chief Shot, Unhinged Liberals Blame Conservatives

Update: The initial reports that the shooter was a disgruntled employee of a dealership that Bill Gwatney was a partner of have been denied. The police have said that this is not the case and that Gwatney and his killer were not associated in such a manner.

Johnson had no prior police record, according to the Little Rock police and a motive was still unknown. “This is one of those where we may never know,” said Police Lt. Terry Hastings.

Immediately after the shooting, police sources said they were working to confirm tentative information that the suspect was a former employee of a Gwatney car dealership. The Little Rock police said, however, at an afternoon news conference that the shooter, whom they did not identify, was NOT a Gwatney employee and, so far as they knew, never had been, contrary to some reports mentioned here earlier in the day. Hastings said they hoped to learn from family more about Johnson’s background.

According to one source, information gathered about Johnso indicated he’d exhibited erratic behavior at least once in the past. He reportedly made an irate visit to a dentist a year or so ago, but later returned to apologize.

Original Story Below:

A man stormed into the State Democratic Party Headquarters and critically shot party chair Bill Gwatney. Gwatney died hours later. According to the the Arkansas Times the man may have been a former employee of Mr. Gwatney’s body shop and was recently let go.

As is typical with liberals that spout at the mouth on the drop of a of dime they are out in force filling comment sections of newspapers and blogs blaming the attack on conservative talk radio hosts, bloggers and anyone else these clueless dimwits can think to blame. Even more amazingly, but not surprising is that these morons didn’t even bother to read the articles to which they attached their ignorant opinions.

The following description appeared in the Arkansas Times.

Arkansas State Democratic Party Chair Bill Gwatney was shot and critically wounded at State Democratic Party Headquarters on Capitol Avenue about 11:50 a.m. today, witnesses at the scene said.

A suspected shooter was fatally wounded after a chase into adjoining Grant County, a Little Rock police spokesman said. Sources say they are working to confirm tentative information that the suspect was a former employee of a Gwatney car dealership. News reports are identifying him as Tim Johnson, 50, of Searcy. He reportedly was a body shop worker at a Gwatney dealership in Sherwood. A woman who answered the phone there hung up after issuing a no comment to a question.

[~snip]

Police may have picked up the shooter’s trail because he threatened someone with a gun nearby. Reports were that a man with a gun confronted a building manager in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention office building a few blocks east of Democratic headquarters and said he’d lost his job. This apparently was not long before the shooting. He pointed the gun, but didn’t shoot. He fled in a vehicle whose description may have been reported to police.

Gwatney, a former state senator, was an executive in a car dealership group, a business in which employment changes are not uncommon. Rumors immediately arose that the shooter might have been a disgruntled former employee of a Gwatney dealership. There were layoffs at a Gwatney dealership this week, according to employees.

And here’s the reaction by some of the readers:

If this is a pure hate crime against a Party official ( I just can’t imagine it was targeted at Bill personally) then this is an enormous wake up call for people to stop spewing the garbage that “Democrats are destroying the country” because Fox News and Rush may think its entertaining but when you spew hate filled propaganda clearly some nut jobs take it very seriously.

This sounds like Act II of the Knoxville church shooting to me. The culture of hate in this country is spreading, thanks to the Hannitys, Limbaughs and their ilk. Pray that the ER staff can use all of their skills to save Bill.

Huff and Puff Posters are no better:

I’ll give a GD motive.

RUSH LIMBAUGH
SHAWN HANNITY
MICHAEL SAVAGE
GLEN BECK

The all should be tried for inciting HATE AND VIOLENCE

What an effing idiot. He should be tried for stupidity.

I won’t be surprised when it turns out that the killer is another typical wingnut failure of a male who couldn’t get a woman or a job, yet after listening to hours of right wing hate radio decided he was going to do something about it once and for all.

The ignorance displayed by these people is a national embarrassment. It is a disgrace to Democrats. They have no shame when it comes to politicizing anything; not even the tragic death of one of their own.