1 brave soul dead in Jackson Co. Courthouse shooting: Was upset over property tax assessment

MAQUOKETA, Iowa — Seconds after the chairman of the Jackson County Board of Supervisors told a camera operator to turn off Tuesday's recording of a board meeting, a man pulled a handgun from his briefcase, began shooting and wound up dead.

Chairman Jack Willey said he would not have expected "in a million years" that Francis "Gus" Glaser would take aim at a county official. It appeared that Glaser, a former city manager in Maquoketa and in Tipton, Iowa, intended to shoot Assessor Deb Lane, Willey said.

Instead, Glaser was tackled by the three county supervisors, a newspaper editor and a candidate for the county board. During the struggle, Glaser was killed when his gun discharged a second time.

Willey said Glaser, 71, was upset about a property tax matter.

"He came to us last week and wanted to talk about assessments and appraisals, and we basically told him we couldn't do anything until he got on the agenda," Willey said, retelling the morning's events from the downtown hair salon he shares with his wife. "He was supposed to be there at 9:30 a.m., but we let another group go ahead of him, because he wasn't there yet."

Glaser arrived shortly after 9:30, Willey said, and told the board his property was not being fairly assessed.

"He talked about the same stuff he'd talked to us about four or five other times," he said. "He didn't feel he'd been treated fairly. He got pretty upset. He wanted to know what our salaries were. (Assessor) Deb Lane said she could give him a ballpark idea, and he said that was OK."

Thinking business was done for the day, Willey then called for the meeting to adjourn and ordered the camera that records the meetings to be turned off.

"Gus continued talking, and Deb was told she could leave," he said. "Gus said, 'No. We're going to settle this here and now.' That's when the gun came out and he shot toward the hallway, which is where Deb was."

Supervisor Larry "Buck" Koos was the first to his feet, Willey said. He rushed toward Glaser, crashing into a glass door. Supervisor Steve Flynn followed and Doug Melvold, the editor of the Maquoketa Sentinel-Press, who was sitting nearby, also joined in wrestling Glaser to the ground, Willey said. There were nine people in the room in all, and five of them helped detain Glaser.

Two high school students who were at the meeting to observe for a class left before the shooting.

"They got him to the ground, and that's when we heard the second shot," Willey said. "We saw Buck's arm bleeding, and we thought Buck had been shot."

But Koos sustained a laceration to the arm when he came into contact with the shattering glass from the office door, Willey later learned. He was taken to the hospital, where his injury was sutured before he was sent home, he said.

In the confusion, two of the supervisors used the law-enforcement alert buttons at their desks to summon police, Willey said, adding that officers responded almost immediately.

"We didn't know Gus was dead," he said. "He wasn't moving. An officer said, 'There's no pulse.' We could see then by all the blood that it couldn't have been just from Buck's arm. I'm not sure where, exactly, he was shot. They hadn't found either bullet when we were taken out."

Jackson County Sheriff Russ Kettman said the supervisors' actions, especially Koos', spared others in the room.

"I'd call Buck a hero," he said. "He saved Deb's life."

Willey, who has served 24 years on the board, said he felt lucky to be alive, too.

"It's all clear in my mind what happened — just not sure why," he said. "Gus was a member of Rotary with me. Never in a million years would I have thought he would open that briefcase and pull out a gun. I'm glad I ended the meeting. The camera would have recorded the whole thing."

Kettmann said Glaser did not have a permit to carry or buy a gun.

The courthouse was immediately put on lockdown and was closed for the rest of the afternoon. The sheriff said the courthouse will be open Wednesday.

Glaser was city manager of Maquoketa from July 1994 to April 1997 and was Tipton city manager from 1997 until 2000.

Maquoketa Schools Superintendent Chris Hoover said the district buildings were in lockdown for about 30 minutes after they heard about a shooter at the courthouse.

http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/dead-in-jackson-co-courthouse-shooting/article_fe3d7bb5-24f4-5f81-bc02-f7b8d9ea0138.html

So sad that he didn't bring an Uzi. Could have whacked the whole rotten bunch.

Quote :: "I'd call Buck a hero," he said. "He saved Deb's life."

Willey, who has served 24 years on the board, said he felt lucky to be alive, too.

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1 brave soul dead in Jackson Co. Courthouse shooting: Was upset over property tax assessment

1 brave soul dead in Jackson Co. Courthouse shooting: Was upset over property tax assessment

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