School board shooting: Clay Duke turns gun on himself after confrontation (VIDEO)

Dec 15, 2010

Clay Duke, an ex-convict, held a Panama City, Florida school board hostage before killing himself on Tuesday morning. As AP reported:

Police say the ex-convict who held a Florida school board at gunpoint had been planning to do it for some time. Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten says Tuesday's date was circled on a calendar found in the trailer where 56-year-old Clay Duke lived north of Panama City.

Duke shot himself after firing at school board members during a meeting Tuesday. No one else was hurt. Before opening fire, he painted a red V on a wall and talked about his wife being fired.

Officials say she worked for the schools, but it wasn't clear whether she resigned or had been fired or what her job was. She was apparently living with her mother in a nearby town. Van Etten says the shooting was not "spur of the moment." Police also found anti-government paraphanelia in Duke's home.

The entire school board shooting was captured on camera, as Melissa Bell explained:

In the chilling video captured by a WMBB News 13 camera, the board members try to reason with Duke and try to save one another from the gunman.

Ginger Littleton, one school board member, stayed in the room even after Duke ordered her to leave. In the video, she swings her purse at him, in an attempt to knock the gun out of Duke's hand. She falls to the ground, and Duke stands over her but does not kill her. Another school board member comes back into the room at that time and asks the gunman to let Littleton leave, which Duke does.

At another point, Superintendent Bill Husfelt asks Duke to let everyone else go, saying Husfelt was likely the one responsible for firing Duke's wife. Duke turns his gun on Husfelt and fires, but the bullets miss Husfelt.

Warning: The video may be disturbing to some viewers and contains violence. Please note that gunshots fired in the video did not harm anyone.

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