© AP Photo / Dave Kettering
The station reported that 71-year-old Francis "Gus" Glaser attended the Jackson County supervisors meeting to contest his property taxes and the assessed value of his property.
Jackson County Sheriff Russ Kettmann told the LA Times that supervisors allowed Jackson County Assessor Deb Lane to leave the meeting when the discussion got heated and became unproductive.
As Lane was leaving, Glaser removed a handgun from his briefcase and shot at her, Kettmann told the newspaper. Before Glaser could follow Lane into the hall, County Supervisor Larry "Buck" Koos tackled him, according to the Times. Kettmann told the newspaper it was a good thing because "it would have been a lot worse" if Koos hadn't tackled the shooter.
According to Kettmann, the two struggled, hitting the glass door and then falling to the floor with Koos on top of Glaser. Two other people helped him hold Glaser down, Kettmann said.
The gun somehow ended up underneath Glaser during the struggle, Kettmann told the newspaper.
"As they were holding him down, waiting for help there, the gun went off," he said, according to the Times.
The sheriff said it was unclear whether Glaser meant to shoot himself or if the gun went off accidentally. Koos was taken to a local hospital for non-gun-related injuries and released, the Times reported. Kettman said Glaser did not have a permit to carry or purchase a handgun. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is conducting an investigation on the shooting, reported the Times.
Glaser had served as Maquoketa's city manager from 1994 to 1997, according to what a city spokesperson told the Times.
Reader Comments
The physics involved in a gun accidentally going off do not jive with the gun lying prone underneath a human body. I guess that there could be a remote chance that it was a semi-auto handgun and that the firing hammer was in a cocked position. But even then you would think that it would only cause a grazing wound due to the fact that it would have fired the bullet in a trajectory that was parallel to the ground.
It almost seems to me that something else went down and that this story has been concocted to protect 'Buck'.
I'm no gun expert so could definitely be wrong. But at first blush, that is the impression that I get.