Texas shooting suspect Thomas Alton Caffall's family "distraught" after he, 2 others killed

Thomas Alton Caffall, seen in an undated Facebook photo. / Facebook

(CBS/AP) COLLEGE STATION, Texas - A deadly shootout erupted Monday near the Texas A&M University campus when a man being brought an eviction notice opened fire on a Texas law enforcement officer, leaving three people dead, including the officer and the gunman.

Police say Thomas Alton Caffall, 35, opened fire on Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann just after noon as the lawman brought an eviction notice. Both men were later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Police identified Chris Northcliff, 43, as the third person killed in the shootings at an off-campus home not far from the university's football stadium. Three other law enforcement officers and a 55-year-old woman were wounded, College Station Assistant Police Chief Scott McCollum said.

Caffall's sister said Monday night the family was "shocked" by the violence.

"Our hearts and prayers go out to the families and this is just a senseless tragedy," said Courtney Clark, Caffall's sister, reached Monday evening at her mother's home in Navasota, about 20 miles to the south. "We are just distraught by the havoc that he has caused."

She declined additional comment.

Caffall's stepfather, Richard Weaver, told CBS station KHOU that the suspected gunman refused to work after apparently quitting his job less than a year ago. Weaver said Caffall regularly played video games inside his rental home near the campus. According to KHOU, Northcliff, the third man killed on Monday, was Caffall's landlord.

Weaver told KHOU that Caffall played video games so much that it seemed to be warping his sense of reality. He said Callfall's alleged violent reaction to an eviction notice was not something that surprised him. Weaver even told KHOU he had become concerned that Callfall might hurt, or even kill, one of his own family members in recent months.

Weaver told KHOU reporter Drew Karedes over the telephone that he was worried his stepson was going to snap. When asked if the family ever brought the concerns to authorities, he said they had not.

11 Photos

3 killed in shooting near Texas A&M University

Officers responding Monday afternoon to reports of an officer down saw Bachmann wounded on the ground in the front yard, then got into what McCollum described as an extended shootout - on that lasted 30 minutes - with Caffall, who eventually was shot.

Police spokeswoman Rhonda Seaton said Northcliff was outside the home when he was shot, as was the wounded woman, whose name had not been released by Monday evening.

The woman was hospitalized in serious condition following surgery. One of the injured officers, Justin Oehlkee, was treated for a gunshot wound in the calf and was in stable condition, Seaton said. Two other officers — Brad Smith and Phil Dorsett, were treated for "shrapnel injuries" and released, Seaton said.

Texas State troopers and Brazos Valley lawmen watch as an ambulance believed to be carrying one of their fellow officers speeds off in College Station, Texas, Aug. 13, 2012.

/ AP

Police declined to speculate on a motive for the gunfire.

The shootings prompted Texas A&M to issue an emergency alert warning students and residents to stay away from the area. Most of the university's 50,000 students were not on the campus about 90 miles northwest of Houston because the fall semester doesn't start until Aug. 27, university spokeswoman Sherylon Carroll said.

Diana Harbourt, 27, who lives about a block from where the shootings happened, said she heard five loud popping sounds from a back room of her home looking out her front door to see an officer park his vehicle on the street and crouch in front of another vehicle.

"We heard him exchanging some words with the person and then shots being fired," Harbourt said. "And then we heard more sirens and more officers and fire trucks came and they were keeping their distance, kind of slowly moving in. More officers showed up and told us to stay inside."

Officers, meanwhile, were dealing with losing someone McCollum called a respected colleague.

"Brian Bachmann was very close to everyone in law enforcement," McCollum said. "He was a pillar in this community, and it's sad and tragic that we've lost him today."

Bachmann, 41, worked more than 19 years in law enforcement, according to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education. He started out with the Hempstead Police Department before spending most of his career with the Brazos County Sheriff's Office. He had been a constable since January 2011, after winning election to the post the prior November.

In a February 2010 candidate profile in the Bryan-College Station Eagle, the married father of two said he wanted to bring "constables back to the community" by actively patrolling neighborhoods to discourage crime.

Constables are law enforcement officers similar to sheriff's deputies who are elected to serve in specific county precincts. They primarily serve warrants and official paperwork or act as courtroom bailiffs.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an A&M alumnus, said at an event in Florida that his "prayers are with any of those that have been injured." A&M President R. Bowen Loftin issued a statement calling Monday a "sad day in the Bryan-College Station community."

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

If they had a toothache, you would take them to the dentist, wouldn't you? If they broke their arm, you would take them to the emergency, wouldn't you? How is this any different? They are SUFFERING.
-----------------------

If you're still out there, I'll tell you how this is "different".
No parent wants to admit that their kid is not normal.
"Not MY kid!"
How to solve that, I have NO idea! : /

[erasmus111]

"No parent wants to admit that their kid is not normal."

So you live in denial and let them suffer?

You solve it by doing what you need to do for the child. You may not like it, but there are things you have to do in life, whether you like it or not. You just do it!

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

I agree.
But how to make others agree? I don't know.

[monstrous-monster]

The world is a cruel place and violence is never the answer for any problems that you're going through. Prayers to all the families that are dealing with this.

I blogged about this today at
www.monstrous-monsters.blogspot.com

Come by and read some articles

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

erasmus - Since you're from Canada, I have a question for you.

How common is the ADD/ADHD diagnoses thrown around up there? Has it gotten to the point of ridiculous, or do you think they are accurate? Or is it even used at all?

[erasmus111]

At one point in time, there were a lot of kids diagnosed with ADD. Whether they were ALL accurate or not, I don't know.

What I do know is that my neighor's child had a severe problem. This child used to play with my children and they were coming home INJURED. She would shove them off their bikes and would go for their faces. I watched her for a while and knew she had a serious problem. When I told her mother, she told me I was wrong. After a few months she came back to me and told me I was right. Her daughter had attacked her preschool teacher. No one had said anything about her behavior before. She took her to a specialist and he said that her daughter was very intelligent, but she couldn't concentrate, because in her brain, it was like watching 6 TVs at once. Her brain wasn't putting out or maybe it was getting too much of a particular enzyme, or something.

This kid didn't get along with any child. No one liked her. She was sort of okay in a "controlled" setting, and with no distractions, but not for long.

When the kid was put on Ridalin, or whatever the drug is, the parents at the school were VICIOUS towards the mother for allowing it. The problem is, they did not know what this child was really like. They didn't SEE the difference this drug made in her life. She finally settled down and was able to have friends. She could focus on her school work. She wasn't attacking people anymore. She actually felt REMORSE when she did do something wrong. She would actually CRY when she got punished. She was finally a human being. You could see she was so much happier.

The mother finally admitted to me that she figured she, herself, had the same problem. When she became a teenager, she became a lot worse. Out of control. Her daughter went through the "normal" teenage stuff, but she wasn't out off control. They tried numerous times to take her off the drug, to see what she would be like without it, but they always had to put her back on it.

Of course when you become an adult, when your brain finally matures (usually in your early to mid twenties), you are able to manage things better, but I don't think the problem ever goes away. I know adults that have been diagnosed with ADHD and they are FINALLY able to function normally with the drugs. Not before they destroyed their marriages though.

I'm afraid I have more faith in OUR doctors than yours, though. Ours think more about the patient than the money. So I'm thinking that the diagnoses were more accurate. The ones that really needed the medications are the ones that got them.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

I've seen several problems here. One is its overprescribed, for many kids that don't need it!
Another, its prescribed in WAY too high doses at times, turning them into zombies!
Another, the fricken Insurance companies have decided the time release is Not Covered! Leaving parents on their own! Or kids having to come "down" off meds at school in the middle of the day and take a second pill!
And yet another....many kids start off with that, then the doctors want to say "well I think they have this problem too, lets label them again and add another medicine! Oh you got side affects? Well lets add yet ANOTHER medicine to those!" Until they've literally got them on meds they are afraid to take them off of, for fear of what the kid will do while detoxing!

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

by erasmus111 August 14, 2012 3:17 PM EDT
by Dancing-in-the-Streets August 14, 2012 9:52 AM EDT
You can't got the the authorities with "i'm worried". They won't listen to a word you say until there has been a crime committed.


So does that mean you don't even TRY??

If he showed any signs of mental problems, as a child, or young adult, they could have got him help. He could have been committed if he was really bad.

If he was addicted to video games at 30, then he would have shown signs of addiction as a child. An addictive person, is an addictive person. They don't just all of a sudden show signs of being an addictive person when they become an adult.
--------------------
Do you have any idea how many grown adults are addicted to video games? Its staggering! And I don't think its possible to count how many have "addictive personalities"! : /
And they could have committed him as a child. That would be NO GUARANTEE whatsoever that he'd be "cured" as an adult!

Even if you get them to the doctor - get a prescription, make sure they have it. This is how it goes, They start taking it, start feeling "normal"/"better", and think, well I don't need this stuff anymore, they stop taking the pills, and go off the deep end again!

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

Or they end up with a quack for a doctor, and get given pills they Don't need until they end up crazy!

Its still all opinions, its not concrete like, "if you don't take out the appendix you'll die" is.

[erasmus111]

"And they could have committed him as a child. That would be NO GUARANTEE whatsoever that he'd be "cured" as an adult!"


I'll say it AGAIN. So does that mean you don't even TRY?? Do you not make an EFFORT to SAVE your child?



"And I don't think its possible to count how many have "addictive personalities"!"

That doesn't even make sense.


"Do you have any idea how many grown adults are addicted to video games?"

A person does not become addicted to video games unless they have an ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY. And if they have an "addictive personality" as an adult, they also had it as a child. There would be obvious signs of it.

"Or they end up with a quack for a doctor, and get given pills they Don't need until they end up crazy!"

Actually, you do live in America, so that could be true.

[erasmus111]

Dancing-in-the-Streets

So what's up with the name change? Got banned, did you?

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

I used to be Zann-Zel - yeah I got banned while on vacation! What sense did that make? I wasn't even HERE! But when I came home, I found my old username to be unuseable and all my previous comments gone.

[erasmus111]

Dancing-in-the-Streets

You didn't get banned for no reason. I would say that the last day you were on here, before the vacation, you said something to get you banned. You just didn't notice it until you got back.

So whatever you said on your last day, it must have been BAAAAADDDD.: )

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

erasmus - A couple can raise 5 kids in the Same family, the same way, same environment. And they will NOT all come out the same. Sometimes parents do everything they are supposed to do and a kid just goes the wrong way. Chemical imbalance or their own personal decisions? Who knows, I'm sure each case is different. But that would be a slippery slope to start accusing the parents of 30 year old criminals! Just curious - do you have kids?

[erasmus111]

Parents don't always raise every child the same. Each child is different and has different needs. Plus times change over the years and people become more "modern" in their thinking on how things should be done. So therefore, you may just change the way you do things, slightly. That is considered NORMAL.

Now, there are parents out there that don't do things the same for each child and those things are NOT NORMAL. Surely you have heard about the MANY instances in where a parent will beat one child, but not the other. They will lock up and torture one child, but not the others. They will molest/rape one child, but not the others.

Yes, I do have kids.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

Yeah I have heard of those instances.

I just look at my own family, my brother and I aren't Anything like our sister! Thank God! LOL!
And I look at my 3 kids - raised the same, but so very different from the day they were each born.
And one of my children is not what you would call "normal". So when I see something like this - it hits home. I'm sure he would never hurt anyone, he just thinks differently than the rest of us do. After all the years of dealing with specialists of every kind, I have come to the conclusion there IS no normal. And until there is a blood test, a concrete way of saying, this one is "crazy" or whatever diagnosis they are attempting to stick on them, its all opinions. : /

[ladyang]

Just read the Tx govenor (Perry) now thinks its ok for the government to take guns from citizens. Wow, nothing like having it in your backyard for one to come to a good solution.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

where'd you read that???

[erasmus111]

by Dancing-in-the-Streets August 14, 2012 2:38 PM EDT
where'd you read that???


Panicking, are you?

[ladyang]

Another white guy goes on a shooting spree and he's labeled just "sick". Had his skin color been anything but white and he'd been labeled a "terrorist". Why aren't white men profiled more? Why aren't folks on social media sites who admit to loving guns, right-wing news, and hate for the president profiled? Why are the rest of us who knows that guns are dangerous have to held hostage by the liks of these people.
GUNS ARE NOT THE ANSWER!

[TimeToEvolve]

This is a good example of why all students and teachers should be armed. All drivers on the roads should be armed with automatic assualt weapons in case someone cuts you off or if you have an argument. If a peace officer stops you who you do not like, the odds will be more even.

Everyone will learn to be polite or else. So smile and don't be afraid. I am a spokeperson for the NRA and I endorse this message.

[addict42]

Just another day in America, especially Texas. We'll have to have another 1,654,900 multiple shootings killing millions of Americans before anything is done. Cie la vie.

[TimeToEvolve]

None of the rich people would have any guns then.