State Street Shooting

The buzz in the Media seems to suggest that people are surprised that a man was shot on just outside City Bar before 12:00 this morning.

I frequently see mentally-ill folks running around state street, shouting at strangers dining outside and even inanimate objects. The only thing these people need is a gun. A man outside Brochah Monday evening was harassing women as they passed, sometimes nearly striking them as he danced on the sidewalk. There was the soliciting for sex and humping the pavement.

Anyway, I digress...

A Madison Police Department press release won't give any details on the victim or perpetrator, except that they are in their early twenties. The police also seemingly contradict themselves with "not appear to be a random act and there is no continuing threat to the community." If the act wasn't random, that would mean that the shooting is part of a larger wave of violence, wouldn't it?

Already assumptions are flying around the some in the blogosphere that the victim was some homeless guy, and the press describe the perpetrator as some "unkempt" nutjob. Oh, and if you want to see some early morning views of police wandering state street, that's available as well.

Perhaps the best line came from an interview with Samara Kalk Derby over at the Cap Times:

"The mayor is more concerned about charging $5 for Halloween than with downtown safety," he (recent UW graduate student Max Gad) said. "I came here four years ago and this was supposed to be the safest college town and now you have regular assaults on Langdon Street, more fighting going on outside of bars, and now this shooting."

Updates are available at a State Journal Live Blog.