Exclusive Interview With Suspected Gunman

A man accused of pulling a gun on the TU campus, talks for the first time. Richard Hall has been in the Tulsa County jail without bond for nearly two weeks. <br/><br/>Tulsa Police arrested him after

Tuesday, September 12th 2006, 10:39 am

By: News On 6

A man accused of pulling a gun on the TU campus, talks for the first time. Richard Hall has been in the Tulsa County jail without bond for nearly two weeks.

Tulsa Police arrested him after they say he tried to kill his former boss inside the University of Tulsa's activity center. Hall chose to talk exclusively to News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright.

Richard Hall says he never meant to kill anyone the day he went onto the TU campus. He admits though that he had two loaded guns with him and extra ammunition in his pockets. But he has an explanation for all of that.

Richard Hall admits he was fired from TU, that he lost a worker's comp claim and that his house was recently sold at a foreclosure auction. He denies any of that made him mad enough to want to hurt someone. He says he was going to sell his two handguns and wanted to test-fire them first.

He says on his way to do that, he stopped at the TU campus to see all the new construction. He says he didn't want to leave the guns in his truck for fear they'd be stolen. "I found a parking spot. I can't leave the guns there, so I wrapped them in a jacket and put them in a sack and figure I'd walk through and see all the new stuff at ACAC." ACAC is the Allen Chapman Activity Center where Hall used to work.

He says he was shocked to encounter his former boss and only then remembered he'd signed a document after he was fired, agreeing he'd never enter the building again. He figured they'd called security and feared he would be jumped before he could leave. "So, I said, the only way to get out of here. I pulled my gun and pointed it at him and go pow pow, with my mouth, you know. I figured he would turn and run. But he realized I wasn't going to shoot him and he jumped me."

Hall says he never pulled the trigger and the gun didn't misfire. He says the safety was on. He says he was on the floor before he knew what happened. "If I really wanted to do him bodily injury, I would've taken out the 357, there's no safe on that, with hollow point and he wouldn't be around. I didn't do that."

Hall has a bond hearing this week, but he says it won't matter if the judge sets bail, because he can't pay for it. He also says even though he's innocent, he believes he'll be sent to prison.

Tulsa Police say Hall's version of the events in no way matches the evidence or the eyewitness accounts from the crime scene.