Three killed in shootings near Texas A&M University

Just a week after a gunman killed six worshippers at a Wisconsin gurdwara, another opened fire on police officers near the Texas A&M University campus killing a local constable and a bystander, police said.

Four others were wounded in the exchange of gunfire shortly after noon Monday. The gunman, who was shot by officers, died after he was taken into custody, Scott McCollum, assistant chief with the College Station police department, told reporters.

The slain constable, Brian Bachmann, 41, is the sixth law enforcement official killed so far this year in Texas, CNN reported citing the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
The suspect at the centre of the standoff was identified as 35-year-old Thomas Caffall, who on his Facebook page described himself as "a cross between Forrest Gump and Jack  Kerouac ... I'm on the road permanently."

Three of the seven profile pictures on the Facebook page are of rifles, three feature dogs and one shows a man in an image much like one distributed Monday night by the city of College Station, CNN said.

His list of "inspirational people" includes famed snipers Vasily Zaytsev and Carlos Hathcock, as well as noted firearms designers Eugene Stoner, Mikhail Kalashnikov, John Garand, Samuel Colt and John Browning.

The page also includes a quote saying, "We are all capable of redemption, if we are willing to change", plus another he attributes to George Orwell stating, "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

The third victim, described as a "civilian bystander," was identified as 43-year-old Chris Northcliff of College Station.

Four others suffered injuries in the roughly 30-minute ordeal after law enforcement officers arrived at a residence a few blocks from the Texas A&M campus, where the constable had gone to deliver an eviction notice, McCollum said.