Thursday, March 16, 2006

Three dead, two wounded in Denny's shooting

Police say three dead, two wounded in restaurant shooting




2:20 p.m. March 15, 2006

PISMO BEACH – A gunman opened fire inside a crowded Denny's restaurant during lunch hour Wednesday, killing two people and wounding two before taking his own life, police said.

“There could have been 30 or 40 people inside. As the shootings occurred, people were fleeing the restaurant, hiding in bathrooms,” Cmdr. Jeff Norton said.

Police said they did not know the motive for the shootings.

Police Chief Joe Cortez said authorities have not found any connection between the gunman and the victims and it doesn't appear he had a grudge against Denny's or its employees.

He said the man began shooting within a few steps of the restaurant's front door.

“The witnesses described him as coming in with a dazed look on his face, then they said he started shooting,” Cortez said.

The names of the gunman and the victims were not immediately released. Nor was the condition of the wounded.

Cindy Tabelin of Stockton said her 68-year-old cousin was one of the victims. She told the San Luis Obispo Telegram-Tribune that said she and her mother were on their way into the restaurant when the shooting started.

Her cousin was inside with his wife and young granddaughter, Tabelin said.

She sat on a curb in the restaurant parking lot after the shooting. “I'm waiting for them to let us have our cousin,” she said.

Her cousin's granddaughter was not shot, but “she just watched her grandfather get killed,” Tabelin said.

Pismo Beach is in San Luis Obispo County, about a 190-mile drive northwest of Los Angeles.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was working the day of the shooting. No one will understand what those of us that were inside went through and continue to go through. Those images, of someone shooting people and walking towards you.. firing away. That is something you can never shake. These things aren't supposed to happen. I am thankful to have gotten away, even when everyone around me was shot, 2 fatally. But you do always have that guilt, because you lived and others did not. It may not make sense to someone that has never been through something like this, but it forever changes you.

I owe my life to Harold Hatley and my heart goes out to Mr. Vasquez's family. God bless them.

Anonymous said...

Harold Lee Hatley was a hero. His remains were cremated per request. He was a Sheriff's deputy and a veteran of the Korean Conflict.

Anonymous said...

Harold Lee Hatley is a direct descendant of Wolfert Webber, the legendary son of King William I of the Netherlands!

Explanation:
Willem I, the King of Holland!
Wolfert Webber
Anneke Janse Webber
Willem Bogardus
Lucretia Bogardus
Hester Van Deursen
Rachel Van Schaick
Jacob Buchanan
Delila Buchanan
Mark Jr. Hatley
James Monroe Hatley
William Berry Hatley
Emery W. Hatley
Leonard G. Hatley
Harold Lee Hatley (HERO!!!!!!!)