Three Dead Following Delaware Courthouse Shooting Rampage
Three people, including the gunman, are dead following a shootout at a Delaware courthouse Monday morning. It happened just after 8:00 a.m., when a man walked into the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington and opened fire. Police have not identified the shooter or his victims, both women, though WCAU is reporting the man's name was David T. Matusiewicz.
Matusiewicz was in the middle of a custody battle with his ex-wife, who is reported to be one of the women killed. He was previously sentenced to four years in federal prison after kidnapping his own children and taking them to Nicaragua in 2007.
Wilmington Mayor Dennis Williams said that the gunman was killed by police in a gunfight. Two police officers were injured as well, they were saved by bulletproof vests they were wearing.
Jose Beltran, who works at the courthouse, spoke to the News Journal in Wilmington about what he saw, saying he was just walking into the courthouse when the gunfire broke out.
"I saw two shots. I saw people going on the ground so I just made a U-turn and ran out of the building," he said. "After that I don't know what happened."
Another witness, Thomas Warren, told the newspaper he was just arriving at the courthouse for jury duty at the time of the shooting. He said as he was headed into the building, he saw a man lying dead on his stomach just outside the courthouse's front door.
"We didn't know if the gun was still on the loose," Warren said. "People didn't know what was going on. They just wanted to get the hell out of there. Once the police started coming through, people started to feel better and thinking it was over."
Ironically enough, Wilmington's Police Chief Christine Dunning was in Philadelphia during the shooting, attending a round table discussion with Vice President Joe Biden on gun control.