THE WAY IT WENT DOWN: FROM THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

AN EXCERPT FROM A REPORT TO THE CAUSIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, PREPARED BY THE CAUSIS COUNTRY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

-suspect entered the Brixton Rare Book Room at approximately 2:30 PM PST 22 JUN 2018. Three external cameras track the suspect from the parking structure on Grant Street (2:12 PM), across the War Memorial park lawn, and into Brixton hall (2:27 PM). Internal cameras were later discovered to be not operating (see below).

Several eyewitnesses reported the unidentified suspect (caucasian male, bearded, red, shoulder-length hair, 6’-6’3”, approximately 230 pounds), was “disheveled” and “poorly dressed for the weather” (heavy rain) and wore no shoes, only voluminous and mud stained track pants from the college, and his feet were wrapped in cloth. The firearm we believe he carried (recovered at the scene, see ATTACHMENT A) was a 1932 Browning Ruby, recently fired and in excellent condition. As of yet, the providence of the gun has not been traced.

The man approached the desk, being noticed by most in the room (four eyewitnesses) due to his firearm which he openly carried. The clerk at the desk EMILY PINNELLAS (hispanic female, 27 yoa, see witness report 1197221) was struck by the pistol before she knew he was present, and the suspect climbed up on the table, firing the pistol twice into the ceiling.

“I am here to open a door,” he is reported to have said. Three of the eyewitnesses confirm this statement. One claimed he said “the door.” The meaning of his statement remains unknown.

Before the suspect could dismount the desk, four (or five) other suspects entered and opened fire (presumably on the first suspect). A prolonged gun battle with 77 shots fired then proceeded between the parties. All eyewitness stayed on the ground. Descriptions of the new suspects are poor and include a woman in a raincoat with a silver pistol, two or three “big men,” and an African American woman of indeterminate age with a large bore revolver. (Slugs pulled from the scene include a .357 magnum round, multiple .22 and .32 ACP rounds and several .45 caliber rounds, see ATTACHMENT A).

The suspect behind the desk returned fire, and then fled into the stacks, pursued by the other suspects. Several of the eyewitnesses then fled when the gunman moved into the stacks, but PINNELLAS, still injured and on the ground behind the desk, reports further gunshots from within the stacks, shouting, and some sort of conversation, seemingly between the first suspect and the group pursuing him. Due to her injuries and shock, a reliable timeline of what went on in the stacks cannot be worked out.

Security responded with a lock-down approximately 9 minutes after the first shots were fired. The Special Response Team from Metis County arrived 27 minutes after that, and the room was secured before 3:15 PM PST. Despite the lock-down, and PINNELLAS’ insistence no one went past her, no suspects were apprehended emerging from the rooms or were found in the stacks, which, due to the hermetic seals to keep humidity from damaging the books, had a single climate controlled door, reinforced dew-resistant windows, and a single emergency fire exit closed with a hermetic break-once seal and alarm, which was found completely intact.

Later investigation revealed a single book pulled from the stacks called UPON LEAVE-TAKING FROM YE OTHER WORLDE by Emil Goddadin (pictures included) a rare 15th century text gifted to the college in 1951. This book was stained with blood later identified and typed as goat’s blood (see ATTACHMENT C), a large portion of which was found on the tile floor and marked with multiple foot prints which had tracked the blood in a wide circle. Also found was a single woman’s loafer (left, Kate Spade, Devi Loafer) and the Ruby pistol, along with 71 shell casings of varying calibres (see ATTACHMENT A).

Many aspects of this crime are difficult to parse. For one, it is now clear that someone entered and tampered with the camera system in the Rare Book Room sometime in the weeks before the incident, but did so in an extremely clever way. Computer forensic experts claim some sort of program was installed to overwrite all files on the drive and record and log only the last 3 minutes of footage over and over again, and to appear as if normal recording dating back the insurance mandated month continued.

Second, footage from the quad outside of Brixton hall on 16 JUN 2018 show what is clearly the main suspect accompanied by five others who match the descriptions of the suspects that pursued him into the stacks. Three eyewitnesses have come forward to confirm that several of these suspects (published in a sketch in the local newspaper) questioned them in the last two weeks, claiming to be Federal Agents investigating an undisclosed crime at the university having to do with the Rare Book Room.

One witness even furnished a card given to her by what is believed to be one of the suspects (see attached photocopy). This card appears in all aspects to be a card of a field agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigations, except the number rings computer-based phone-number which allows messages to be left, and the name on it MADELINE GROEN is not the name of any FBI agent. 

Photos of the first suspect were shown to this witness who confirmed he too was present when “GROEN” was questioning her, and that the two appeared more than friendly. “It was clear they had some sort of relationship that went beyond the professional.”