had a Czech built semi automatic rifle which may have been the murder weapon
As residents of College Station attended a memorial service last night for murdered Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann, attention is focusing on the weapons inside Thomas Caffall’s home near Texas A&M University when he opened fire on police Monday, 1200 WOAI news reports.
“He was in the process of serving an eviction notice,” Assistant College Station Police Chief Scott McCollum told 1200 WOAI news Monday night. “That is essentially the only information I have right now, and the reason behind that eviction notice I do not know.”
Caffall opened fire on Bachmann when he went to his home shortly after noon Monday. Bachmann’s calls for backup led to a full blown thirty minute gun battle between Caffall and police. By the time the smoke cleared, Bachmann, 41, as well as Chris Northcliff, 43, a College Station resident who happened to be driving by at the time and was caught in the crossfire.
A College Station Police Officer was shot in the leg and will recover, but a 55 year old woman who also was driving through the area remains in critical condition. Two other officers were treated for minor shrapnel wounds.
It turns out Caffall had several weapons in his small home. One was a Czech made vz 58 submachine gun which he apparently purchased legally at an auction in 2011. The knock off of the Soviet A-K 47 may have been the murder weapon.
It is not known if Caffall bought the gun at a live auction or at a gun show, or on line. A quick Internet search shows dozens of people buying and selling vz 58 semi-automatic rifles with prices ranging from $350 to $750.
Caffall was apparently also in the process of restoring a Mosin-Nagant rifle. The Mosin-Nagant was the long rifle issued to Soviet troops in the 1930s and 1940s, and was used in large numbers by the Soviet Army in World War Two. Mosin-Nagants today are generally used for display purposes.
Gov. Rick Perry says he is concerned that the College Station incident, coming so quickly on the heels of mass shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin, will rekindle the debate over gun control.
“When it gets back to this issue of taking guns away from law abiding citizens and thinking that it is going to make our streets safer, I don’t agree with that, I think most people in Texas don’t agree with that,” Perry said. “That is a state by state issue which should be decided by the states and not in a rush to Washington DC.”
