School Board Shooting Video Shows Gunman Did Not Aim at Victims: VIDEO

Clay Duke's Rambling Hostage-Taking Ends in His Death

Angie Mohr CA CMA
Angie Mohr CA CMA, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Dec 15, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
A shooting at a school board meeting in Panama City, Florida Tuesday resulted in the apparent self-inflicted death of the gunman. See the video here. The shooting occurred close to the end of the school board meeting just after 2 pm EST. The gunman, Clay Duke, was in attendance for the meeting and stood up as it was wrapping up. He brandished a small-caliber gun and approached the school board members. After spray-painting a V in a circle on the wall with red paint, he began a rambling diatribe about his wife being terminated by the school board and about sales taxes. Duke allowed everyone to leave the room except for six men, including board superintendent, Bill Husfelt. As Husfelt tried to reason with the shooter, he aimed the gun and fired towards the group.

Several news outlets are reporting that the gunman aimed directly at Husfelt and missed but video captured from a live internet screening of the meeting tells a different story. The video shows Duke slowly raising his arm and taking aim at the school superintendent. However, the actual shot hits the top of the desk after Duke lowers his aim slightly. The board members all duck under the podium at this point in time and Duke fires a second shot into the base of the podium. Gunfire is then heard off-camera and Duke spins around yelling "Ow". He then fires two rapid shots towards the source of the gunfire, later identified as Mike Jones, the school board's security chief. Jones fired again and Duke went down, having been shot in the knee. According to police, Duke then took his own life. The officially-released video ends before the suicide.

Clay Duke had an existing conviction for shooting in a 1999 confrontation with an ex-girlfriend. According to reports, Duke had stalked the woman for six months, then confronted her in front of her apartment building wearing a mask and carrying two weapons. As the woman tried to drive away, Duke shot out one of the rear tires.

The police investigation will continue today and an official police statement is expected this afternoon. There is no word yet if the school board will release a statement about the shooting.

Published by Angie Mohr CA CMA - Featured Contributor in Business & Finance and Lifestyle

Angie Mohr is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Management Accountant who has worked with thousands of business clients from home-based entrepreneurs to rock bands to celebrity chefs. She is also the auth...  View profile

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  • Tiffany Booth12/20/2010

    Great article Angie! =0)

  • Roberto12/15/2010

    Commenter "Justice" has it right. The gunman was obviously trying to shoot Husfelt but poor technique and probably a large dose of nervous tension caused his aim to fail. Evidence of his nervous tension is found in his second round which was fired inadvertently into the floor. Also, the recoil shows that this was not a "small" caliber handgun, that is unless one considers 9mm to be small. I think he tried to shoot Huisman but really didn't care that he missed.

  • Laura Cone12/15/2010

    another tragic story

  • Tony Payne12/15/2010

    Just another sad story where innocent people get hurt. Nicely reported, I hadn't heard about this.

  • Justice12/15/2010

    Ms. Mohr, you have most likely never shot a gun before if you are saying that he intentionally lowered his point of aim and missed. It is a common shooting mistake to anticipate the shot and push the gun down when pulling the trigger. This is in anticipation of the recoil. He did point the gun and unfortunately the security officer didn't shoot him fast enough.

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