I wondered why the helicopters were hovering around my office, Friday afternoon. I can see the Citicorp building from several windows.
Gunman felt cheated over his inventionA West Side truck driver turned a downtown law firm into a nightmare of blood and broken glass, his rage apparently fueled by the belief he had been cheated over the invention of a toilet designed for tractor-trailers.
He killed three people, wounded another and, after a terrifying 45-minute standoff Friday afternoon, was taken down by two SWAT snipers.
“He had already shot four people,” Police Supt. Phil Cline said Saturday as more details of the rampage emerged. “He had reloaded his gun and there's nothing to stop us from believing he [was] going to go around shooting more.”
Cline said Joe Jackson, armed with a snub-nosed revolver, sought out one attorney, Michael McKenna, an intellectual property specialist. He found him, shot him, then continued firing at others in the 38th-floor office until the snipers shot Jackson in the chest and head.
Not to defend lawyers, as a profession (especially since we are being sued at the moment in a frivolous and ludicrous lawsuit), but they are easy scapegoats when clients have lawsuits that go awry, or in this case, a patent that doesn't get granted. I have no idea of the facts in this particular incident, but law offices often have higher than average security for the simple reason that our society is structured to make every bad twist in fortune somebody's fault, and lawyers are easy targets for wrath.
Police sources said they remain unclear about Jackson's invention and why he felt cheated. A dog-eared copy of McKenna's business card was found in Jackson's pocket, but investigators weren't sure when or how Jackson got the card. As for Jackson's statements that he was cheated, sources said they were waiting to speak with Leib to find out if McKenna had any history with Jackson. ... A public records search found that McKenna had handled at least 84 patents since 1989, but only two of them related to toilets. One involved a toilet paper dispenser that plays music and another covered an ornamental handle for lifting toilet seats.
Tags: West_Loop
