Shooting at Arkansas Dem HQ

clipped from www.arkansasbusiness.com Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman and former state Senator Bill Gwatney of Jacksonville has been shot at the party's headquarters, according to the Associated Press. KTHV-TV, Channel 11, is reporting that Gwatney was shot multiple times in the upper torso has been taken to a local hospital. The Arkansas Democratic Party said Gwatney is hospitalized in critical after incident, KTHV said. Officers told the CBS affiliate that police pursued a white male suspect in his 40's, driving a pickup truck, into Grant County. KTHV reported that officers apprehended him in Sheridan, and that he was shot during his capture. In addition to being state Democratic Party chairman, Gwatney is also CEO of Gwatney Chevrolet in Jacksonville.

Before you make assumptions about the shooter's motive, consider that a bomb and hostage situation at Clinton HQ last year turned out to have more to do with drugs and mental illness than political ideology.

When we know more, I'll post it.

UPDATE: From Associated Press:

Police say a man suspected of bursting into the Arkansas Democratic Party headquarters and shooting the party chairman has died.

Police say the suspect burst into the office of Party Chairman Bill Gwatney and fired three shots. Gwatney is hospitalized in critical condition.

Police Lt. Terry Hastings says authorities chased the suspect into Grant County, south of Little Rock, and that he was fatally wounded during a 30-mile chase.

UPDATE II: From Agence France-Presse:

The chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas was shot and killed Wednesday by a gunman who opened fire at the party's state headquarters, according to ex-president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton.

"We are deeply saddened by the news that Bill Gwatney has passed away," the Clintons, who lived for years in the Arkansas capital of Little Rock while Bill Clinton was governor, said in a joint statement.