Hostage comes out of building 44 | Hostage arrives at hospital | Raw aerials from the scene | Raw ground video | Raw video: HPD SWAT positions itself | NASA press conference: Shooter, victims identified | Jason Whitely reports from JSC| Jeff McShan on police search of gunman's home | Rucks Russell story on woman taken hostage and man killed

A gunman who took two hostages and killed a coworker before taking his own life Johnson Space Center scrawled a message on a dry erase board in the office where the shooting took place. Police would not say what the message from the contract engineer said, but confirmed it did include phone number of people he wished to have contacted.  

Police said Bill Phillips entered Building 44, a communications systems facility, about 1:45 p.m. Friday then shot and killed JSC employee David Beverly. The gunman then took as a hostage a woman who was bound to a chair with duct tape. She later was freed after Phillips turned the gun on himself said police.

Phillips was a contract engineer with Jacobs engineering said Johnson Space Center Director Michael L. Coats. The gun he used was purchased about a month ago police said.

The shooting victim was identified as David Beverly, a 25-year NASA engineer. The female hostage Fran Crenshaw, a contract engineer, was taken to an area hospital by ambulance. She was walking on her own when she came out of the building and when she left the hospital.

She was released from St. John Hospital and was questioned by Houston police before returning to her home late Friday night said Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

HPD hostage negotiators were trying to establish communication just after 5 p.m. when they heard the gunshot. They found the gunman dead of a gunshot to the head inside a room on the second floor.

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The hostage was able to walk to the ambulance on her own after escaping from building 44.

"Also on the same floor there was one other hostage that was shot. We believe that may have occurred during the early minutes of this ordeal," said HPD Capt. Dwayne Ready.

Beverly had been shot in the chest.

His wife Linda, surrounded by friends and family at her home, declined an on camera interview, but said her husband's death was a "huge loss for NASA" and said the space agency recently honored her husband with an achievement award. Police and NASA officials were trying to find a motive to Friday's killings.

Coats said Phillips had worked at NASA for "12 to 13 years" and "until recently" was a good employee. He said investigators were looking into a story that Phillips had lunch with his two victims earlier in the day.

Hurtt said police found a message on a dry erase board in the office where the shootings took place. The chief would not reveal the specific messages left but confirmed that Phillips had written down several phone numbers of people to contact.

Jacobs Engineering, a NASA contractor that has a $1.5 billion contract for technical support, confirmed that the gunman was one of its employees.

“We understand it is one of our employees,” said John Prosser, the company’s executive vice president.

Hurtt said the gun used was a revolver purchased on March 18 at a local gun shop.

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Evacuated employees gathered outside building 44.

A source inside JSC told 11 News that a meeting was under way in a conference room when the gunman walked in and pointed a gun at one person. He ordered everyone else out.

An HPD canine unit was sent to search the suspect's home in the14000 block Jade Meadow Court in southeast Houston.

NASA security responded and HPD was called after the initial call around 1:45 p.m.

More than 15 police cars could be seen outside the building from Air 11.

Building 44, just north of Rocket Park, houses the communications and engineering departments. It is used to test communication equipment for the space shuttle and International Space Station. There are several labs inside.

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More than 15 police cars could be seen outside the building.

NASA employees and contract workers were kept informed of the situation by e-mail.

Christine Reichert, space station flight controller at the space center, said employees were initially told to stay in their buildings. That restriction was lifted a few hours later.

Michael Zolensky, who studies cosmic dust at the space center, said workers were gathered around a television watching news reports of the situation.

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Dozens of police officers and the HPD SWAT unit surrounded the JSC building.

Space Center Intermediate, a Clear Lake ISD school on the NASA property, was also placed on lockdown as a precaution.

Roads within the 1,600-acre campus were blocked off.

Building 44 is along the path of JSC tours.

The gun was a snub-nosed revolver, either .38 or .357-caliber, Ready said. A NASA spokesman said the agency would likely review its security.

To enter NASA, workers flash an ID badge as they drive past a security guard. The badge allows the workers access to designated buildings.

JSC does not routinely search cars or visitors, but Coats said security officials do conduct random spot checks of vehicles. Kennedy Space Center in Florida does conduct routine searches.

Ironically, Coats said JSC security officials had just conducted a review of security procedures at the space center in the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech University. He said in light of Friday's incident a closer review of security procedures was warranted.

It is a federal offense to bring a firearm onto the JSC property said Coats.

President Bush was informed about the gunman as he flew back to Washington from an event in Michigan, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Democratic Congressman Nick Lampson, whose district includes Johnson Space Center, said he was kept abreast of the situation even as he was home resting recovering from heart bypass surgery.

NASA director Michael Griffin was enroute to the Space Center Friday night.

The shootings did not interfere with the Rotary-NASA's annual Space Achievement Awards, which were held in downtown Houston Friday night. The awards ceremony draws NASA employees, contractors and affiliates from across the country to receive the highest awards the space agency gives to non-astronaut workers.

Rodolfo Gonzalez, a spokesman for the awards ceremony, said participants had just finished a tour of the space center about an hour before the first shots were fired. He said none of those participating in Friday's award festivities was affected by the incident.