"New Orleans airport shooting suspect described by former lawyer as 'eccentric'"

Thursday, May 23, 2002

New Orleans airport shooting suspect described by former lawyer as
'eccentric' 
By Doug Simpson
The Associated Press


KENNER, La. (AP) A man described by his former lawyer as ''eccentric''
was arrested on attempted first-degree murder charges after he allegedly
fired a shotgun inside a New Orleans airport, wounding two people. 

Patrick Gott, of Pensacola, Fla., identified himself as a practicing
Muslim and said he fired the gun Wednesday because he was angry that
people had ridiculed his turban, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee
said. 

Gott, 43, is accused of firing once in the ticket lobby of Louis
Armstrong International Airport, hitting an airline customer in the
stomach and a Southwest Airlines worker in the hand. The customer was in
critical but stable condition at a hospital after surgery Wednesday
night. 

Lee said Gott was carrying a Quran and invoked the name of Allah at the
time of the shooting. He was wearing a floral-print shirt, shorts and
black flip-flops. 

Gott told deputies he was in the terminal when people began making fun
of the turban he was wearing. He told investigators that he left the
terminal after the taunts, took a duffel bag with a shotgun out of his
car, went back inside and fired, Lee said. 

''Apparently he thought he heard some people make rude comments about
his turban,'' said Bob Garner, spokesman for the sheriff's department. 

Officials said the shooting did not appear to be related to terrorism
and that Gott acted alone. Lee said Gott did not know either victim, and
Garner added that Gott has no criminal record. 

The blast sent passengers and airline workers running for cover. Workers
ducked behind the ticket desk and some scrambled into the baggage area,
said Mary Ann Rouanet, a US Airways agent. 

''We were all shaken, scared,'' she said. 

Philip L. Fairbanks, a lawyer who represented Gott in a 1998 bankruptcy
case, told The Times-Picayune that his client never mentioned an
interest in Islam. 

''Religious fanaticism is certainly nothing that I would have associated
with him,'' Fairbanks said. 

Gott worked as a carpenter in Beaufort, S.C., Fairbanks said. Gott
declared bankruptcy and hired Fairbanks because he couldn't work or pay
his bills following a serious injury, the lawyer said. 

''He was not your typical Joe, straight-arrow type,'' Fairbanks said.
''He was a bit eccentric. But he was always perfectly capable of dealing
with me. He seemed to be pretty well in touch with reality.''


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