Posted on 06/13/2013 9:24:04 AM PDT by rickmichaels
PHILADELPHIA - The city building inspector who checked a Philadelphia building before it collapsed last week, killing six people, has died of an apparent suicide, local media reported.
The inspector died of a gunshot wound to the chest on Wednesday night, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, citing law enforcement sources. He was found dead inside his vehicle in a wooded section of Shawmont Avenue in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia, the report said.
Police confirmed to Reuters that a suicide had taken place at that location but said they could not confirm the identity of the person who died.
Local affiliates for the ABC, CBS and NBC television networks also reported that the suicide victim was a city inspector who had inspected the building before it collapsed.
Earlier this week, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced plans to convene a grand jury to investigate the extent of responsibility for last week's building collapse, which killed six people and injured 13 others.
Sean Benschop, who was operating the crane when the Market Street building in Center City fell, is the sole person charged so far in the case. He is being held without bail on charges of involuntary manslaughter, recklessly endangering another person, causing a catastrophe and risking a catastrophe.
The scope of the grand jury may include a look at the role of city agencies and their policies, Williams said.
The four-story building was being demolished and collapsed onto a Salvation Army Thrift Store next door.
The building had been issued a demolition permit on Feb. 1 and later that month passed a check by the inspector who is now dead, the Inquirer said.
That's awesome! Remote controlled crane drones operated from Jail!!! What'll they think of next?
By himself?...I highly doubt it. My presumption is he accepted a bribe, OK’d everything without looking at it, the price was overinflated by the government (HUD, whoever, a city beautification plan) the contract was given to organized crime and carried out by non-qualified “Union” people, and it all went bad. Kill the dude off,voila! No trail back to politicians.
He was a backhoe operator according to Philly TV. He had drugs in his system, so easy to blame him to cover Philly’s politicians.
Yes something definitely went wrong here, it’s not scapegoating.
But it remains to be seen just what went wrong and why. I couldn’t even really say whether anybody thinks the “excavator operator” dug too much out or from the wrong place or ran into something, or if he’s just in jail because he was operating an excavator under the influence.
The updated story at the CBS link I posted says the “crane operator” has not been charged, so there is definitely some confusion there in the Philly media.
State Department has hired agents with criminal records, memo reveals
Won't hire convicted criminals? Uncle Sam might have a problem with that
Isnt this what they do in Japan?....Ummmm, this is Philly, not Japan. Get the inkling?
Among men, yes.
Among women, no.
It is hard to believe that he could get a crane operators license in Philadelphia with that kind of record....Do you realize how stupid that post was? Not calling you out, by ANY means, but this is Philly, for Ch...t’s sake!
probably involuntary........
We don’t all live in Philadelphia, lighten up.
Was he Oriental? Saving ‘face’?.........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidenae
Stadium disaster
In 27 AD, an apparently cheaply built wooden amphitheatre, constructed by an entrepreneur named Atilius, collapsed in Fidenae resulting in by far the worst stadium disaster in history with as many as 20,000 dead and wounded out of the total audience of 50,000.
Then there was an arena in Little Rock Ark that was found, in 1998, to be so unstable they had to put in new braces to strengthen it.
There are some in the biz who use the slang term "crane" when referring to an excavator, along with the terms hoe, back hoe and track hoe.
My great-grandfather refused to build the Knickerbocker Theater in Washington, D.C., in 1918. He said it would be unsafe. It collapsed in 1922, after a blizzard. Both the architect and the owner committed suicide.
Philly Outfit. Look the other way money, kicks and he does and the store stays...open? Insanity with proximity of demolition.
Or he was murdered. Dead men tell no tales.
Or it had absolutely nothing to do with the building.
It is hard to believe that an employer would hire him with that kind of background...”
New Department of Labor regs mandate hiring criminals. Sign of things to come.
Could be.
Could also be an inspector who did do his job, reported problems to his superiors, and was told to "shut up."
Now he is sure to keep quiet.
Yep!
wow i grew up right of shawmon st st. elementary school there. used to be woods woods and more woods.
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