Beaumont man shot dead at Houston's Bush Airport

The man has been identified as Carnell Marcus Moore, 29. (Facebook photo) The man has been identified as Carnell Marcus Moore, 29. (Facebook photo) Image 1 of / 41 Caption Close Beaumont man shot dead at Houston's Bush Airport 1 / 41 Back to Gallery

UPDATE: Houston police just released this portion of Carnell Marcus Moore's suicide note that they say was written on Hotel Derek stationery:



"Here in the last hour, I yield to mercy when this could have turned bad. Jehovah found a path to my heart, that love would conquer anger. The monster within me was getting stronger and while I could not save myself I could spare others. [redacted] Peace is within sight. I ask that authorities handle my disposal – Carnell Marcus Moore"

________

A Beaumont man shot and killed Thursday at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport was a reserved person of few words, neighbors said.

But 29-year-old Carnell Marcus Moore wrote of death on his Facebook page earlier Thursday and, according to Houston police, apparently left a suicide note that said he was having trouble controlling his "monster inside."

Moore was killed in gunfire about 1:35 p.m. near a Terminal B ticket counter. It is unclear who fired the fatal shot.

HPD spokesman Kese Smith said an armed male in his early 30s entered the airport and fired at least once into the ceiling just inside the doors of the terminal's pre-security departure area.

Hearing the gunfire, a Homeland Security Investigations agent came out of his office and confronted Moore, ordering him to put down the gun, Smith said.

When Moore refused the command, the officer pulled out his weapon and the man turned toward him, Smith said.

The agent fired once, and Moore shot himself - apparently at the same time, according to Smith. Moore died at the scene. No one else was injured.

Tricia Bentley, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, said an autopsy was expected to be performed on Friday.

Hours after the shooting, officers were at Moore's home in Beaumont, carrying out computer equipment, a neighbor said.

Marietta Kidd said she looked out a window toward the duplex where Moore lived and counted seven unmarked cars in her parking lot about the time school let out on Thursday. Kidd said her father owns the home and that her sister is Moore's neighbor.

Kidd, who owns a beauty salon on the same street where Moore lived, said he had been in the duplex for several years and that he never talked much.

Moore spoke of death on his Facebook page three times since Wednesday.

'When I go to meet God'

The first status update was posted nearly 24 hours before he was killed. "I recently had the chance of staring death in the face, and she was beautiful," he wrote at 1:26 p.m. Wednesday.

About 12:45 a.m. Thursday, he proclaimed that "This Life Will Crash Tomorrow!"

And about 12:42 p.m., he posted: "45 minutes and 59 seconds in God's Shadow and Time Stops."

His timeline also includes a video of a strained and sorrowful spoken word piece called "When I go to meet God."

The lyrics include: "What makes a mother's son decide that death is better than tomorrow?" and "This is not a life worth living. I already ruined it."

According to his Facebook profile, Beaumont was Moore's hometown, though he finished high school in a Georgia community south of Atlanta. He graduated from the heating, ventilation and air conditioning program at the Lamar Institute of Technology.

'He was a good guy'

Colleagues remembered Moore as an affable and kind man.

"He was a friendly guy who talked to everybody," said Tim Knobloch, 29, one of Moore's tech school classmates in 2004 and later his co-worker at a Beaumont air conditioning company. "He was a good guy."

The shooting scene was chaotic, passengers and employees reported.

Tina Gellinger, a 40-year-old Kansan who went outside between flights, was coming into Terminal B when she heard shouts to "run!"

She and others scrambled toward elevators and hid behind walls as gunfire rang out.

Nearby at the McDonald's in the food court, employee Tiffany Rigmaiden heard two shots, then shouting, then three more shots. The 23-year-old said a Transportation Security Administration agent running by told her and other workers to get down. Instead, they escaped through a back door and took an elevator to a lower floor.

According to Houston Airport System spokeswoman Darian Ward, Houston police and the FBI "interviewed quite a few people." She added that there was no "visible damage" to the facility.

The incident also interrupted flights.

Terminal B, where mostly smaller, regional jets land and take off, was shut down for hours. Incoming passengers were rerouted to enter through terminals C and E. At one point, a ground stop prevented planes from landing at Terminal B.

Mike Glenn and Cindy George contributed to this report. Guiseppe Barranco reported from Beaumont.