Did any one know this person?

[Frenchy]

Under fair usage.
[quote]
Fatal shot ends drama at Seton Hill
Student, 22, killed after firing at officers
Monday, February 16, 2009
By Amy McConnell Schaarsmith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
State police in Greensburg shot and killed a Seton Hill University student early yesterday morning after a three-hour standoff at the man's off-campus house.
The student, Joe Frederick Briggs, 22, had threatened his roommates and himself with a gun before his roommates escaped the house and Mr. Briggs began firing shots into the street at about 4 a.m. After shooting at parked cars and neighbors' houses for three hours, Mr. Briggs went into an upstairs bedroom, broke out a window and fired a rifle at a state police officer, according to state police.
A trooper then returned fire and killed Mr. Briggs, police said.
Mr. Briggs' friends and fellow students said the incident was completely out of character for the man they knew. The man they remembered was a great friend who had shown no inclination to hurt anyone, they said.
"I don't know what all happened, but Joe was there for people," said Greg Sell, a 22-year-old senior from Ohio who became friends with Mr. Briggs when they both played for Seton Hill's football team in their freshman year. "If you needed something, he was a person you could call on."
State police said Mr. Briggs' roommates, who were not hurt yesterday, told them he might have been having personal problems with a relationship. Mr. Briggs and one of those roommates, police said, went to the Filly Corral, a strip club near a travel plaza off Interstate 70 in Smithton, on Saturday night. There, Mr. Briggs got "heavily intoxicated," they said.
Mr. Briggs' companion told them Mr. Briggs acted irrationally and fired a gun randomly out the car window on the way home to Greensburg from the club, state police said.
Sometime after the two men reached their home on Concord Avenue -- part of a tidy neighborhood of brick and frame homes opposite the university's campus -- Greensburg police got a call that Mr. Briggs was threatening to shoot himself and his roommates, according to state police.
City police arrived to find three men and a woman outside after they had fled the house. Mr. Briggs, they said, fired out of the house toward the officers, hitting cars parked on the street and at least one house. Three of those houses -- including one where an infant lives -- were evacuated, and local police called the state police and a state police emergency response team for additional help.
Mr. Briggs, they said, stayed barricaded in the house for the next three hours, during which he broke windows, threw objects out of them and continued shooting into the street, ultimately firing 30 to 40 shots, according to the police.
At 7 a.m., Mr. Briggs went to an upstairs window, pointed a long-barreled gun out the window and fired a shot toward a police officer. One member of the state police fired back, striking Mr. Briggs at the window. He was later pronounced dead by the Westmoreland County coroner's office.
During the incident, Seton Hill activated its emergency communications system that sent e-mails and texts to students on campus, telling students to stay where they were and locking down campus buildings until the incident was over, according to a statement posted on its Web site. The warning, issued at 8:30 a.m., was lifted at about 9 a.m., according to students.
The university immediately offered counseling services to students and members of the Seton Hill community. Members of the Counseling Center staff can be reached at 724-838-4295, ext. 4295.
In a statement, university officials invited the campus to attend last night's 7 p.m. Mass at the university's St. Joseph Chapel to join the community "in praying for the soul of the student and the student's family."
Dozens of Mr. Briggs' friends attended the service, which was closed to the media. Although most of them declined to talk about the shooting or about Mr. Briggs, other students said his death was a tragedy for the entire campus, a tightly knit community of about 1,500 students.
"It's devastating," said Katie Brown, 19, a sophomore who said she met Mr. Briggs just once but remembered him as kind and personable. "It affects everyone here in some way, even if they didn't know him well."

[P-11 shooter]

Terrible. + 10

[Frenchy]

I don't want to insult any of the young people here, and certainly do not want to judge the police who have a goal to go home to their family at night, but when ever I see a young life like this snuffed out, always makes me wonder, could some one have talked to this person? Could some one have helped him straighten things up? Was there a less lethal way to end this?

At 22, I was a child. Yeah I know, I did not think this way when I was 22 either, but when I look back on it today, I can see how many things I could have avoided doing had I had some one to show me around a bit moer, some one who listened to me and I could count on to talk straight to me.

My youngest stepson is 22 now; I just can't immagine getting a call from the police saying my kid had to be shot because he was acting dangerous because of a "personal" situation.

So now the cops go home at night, One is probably concerned he had to shoot this child to keep the others safe, probably will need counseling… But did the child have the same counseling options? Was there some one he could turn to and ask for help?

God only knows if this child knew a pastor or even trusted one enough to go talk to him/her or even had the option to call one.

I don’t even want to hear how this will not look good for gun owners, it is not the guns that did this, it is the society that leaves kids to themselves and will not step up to the plate to make kids lives more normal.
Give them an X-box, give them a Wii, that is how we teach them about life today.

22, I was so naïve so young, I thought the world was mine to play with… Lives bumps got me to where I am today, but never in my wildest dreams did I think of anything so incredible as shooting a gun at others like they would miraculously come back to life when the game was over.
Unfortunately, for this child, the game is over, and there is no screen that asks if he wants to start over at the beginning or go back to the last level…
Kids today live in a virtual world, turn off the machine, turn off the cell phones, turn off the games, and the microwave, give them a simple game or a pin ball machine a regular stove to cook on, take away the fast food... and they are lost.

[ruggerio]

what ever the circumstances this is a horrific loss and may god guide his soul and also bring peace to the state trooper who must also be suffering.
he did his duty but i cant see it as anything but a lose lose situation.
in the end who can say. sad, very very sad.

[crakkajakka15]

sad story.... when some people have a bad day they just dont know how to deal with it and take it too far and then things like this happen.

[LM4300]

I don't want to insult any of the young people here, and certainly do not want to judge the police who have a goal to go home to their family at night, but when ever I see a young life like this snuffed out, always makes me wonder, could some one have talked to this person? Could some one have helped him straighten things up? Was there a less lethal way to end this?

.

He only got shot by Troopers after the kid took a shot at them first. How long do you expect them to let him continue to put people in danger? I doubt you'd be contemplating "less lethal" ways to stop him if he was taking shots at you! The kid is in an elevated position with a long gun, that's quite a tactical advantage. After he started firing at people and not just inanimate things, it's time to end the situation.

[HiredGoon]

The story here, has a photo of this guy with his rifle and handgun from his Facebook site.

[Emptymag]

He wasn't a "child", and he was killed because that's what you do to someone who's trying to kill you.

Any "talking/therapy" needed to be done long before he started shooting at others.

Sad indeed that a life was lost, but I'm seeing too much sympathy for the shooter, even from the way the news is reporting it.
How much sympathy would he get if he weren't a popular, football player?

[Paradigm]

The story here, has a photo of this guy with his rifle and handgun from his Facebook site.

From that article:

The student, Joe Frederick Briggs, 22, had threatened his roommates and himself with a gun before his roommates escaped the house and Mr. Briggs began firing shots into the street at about 4 a.m. After shooting at parked cars and neighbors' houses for three hours, Mr. Briggs went into an upstairs bedroom, broke out a window and fired a rifle at a state police officer, according to state police.

A trooper then returned fire and killed Mr. Briggs, police said.

Sounds like this guy was given waaaaay too much time! Firing into the neigborhood for three hours?!? And that was after he had already threatened his roommates. On top of that, the neighbors' houses were occupied at the time he began shooting at them.

Whether or not this guy was messed up/drunk/drugged/etc, he was clearly a threat.

[HiredGoon]

Maybe this was "suicide by cop"? I mean you gotta figure if you shoot at cops you're not going to live very long.

And I agree with Emptymag's take on it.