Getting the jump

Drama began unfolding about 3:25 p.m. in Indianapolis when shots echoed around Downtown buildings. A man standing on the top floor of the eight-story Denison Parking Garage, just north of Maryland Street on Meridian Street, fired two shots into the air followed by one into his head.

Almost immediately, eyewitnesses began to tweet. And refer us to other tweets. Here's my thread.

@indystar #indyshots Here is what we know so far about the Downtown shooting on Meridian and Washington: http://tinyurl.com/2dgccvg 2:47 PM
@tigergixxer: Just saw a guy across from 30 S Meridian commit suicide & fall off parking garage. Was shooting guns in the air prior to that 2:50 PM
@BillRuthhart At the scene of an apparent shooting Downtown. Paramedics just picked a body off the sidewalk just south of Washington and Meridian streets 2:58 PM
@spaldobusiness http://bit.ly/988dUq --> Latest on #Indy shooting. @amybartner @billruthhart @kristoferkarol @kingdaviddogs + tweeps big help in reporting 3:32 PM
@BillRuthhart Suicide shooter fell from top of 8-story parking garage, nearly missing man walking below on sidewalk, wearing headphones. #Indy
@spaldobusiness Working with @indystar photogs Sam Riche and Matt Kryger, they are working up amazing pics from the scene of #indy shooting. On web soon. 3:47 PM
@MegFlyn This article shows power of twitter for receiving news: http://bit.ly/cmTdEG cc: @SpaldoBusiness @kristoferkarol #indy -- such sad news 3:48 PM
@spaldobusiness More on #Indy suicide; just talked with a witness, a CapGrille server who eyed the shooter as he pulled the trigger-> http://bit.ly/aUXIBe 5:43 PM

Witness: Tony Salamone (right), 39, a server at The Capitol Grill, says he saw the gunman in the last moments of his life. Salamone was interviewed this afternoon near the suicide scene by Jeremy Brilliant of WTHR (Channel 13), The Star's news-gathering partner. Photo by Tom Spalding.

Here is a screenshot of a first-person eyewitness account that I got later in the the day.

Twittering & Gen Con

On Aug. 4-6 some 28,000 people descended onto Indianapolis for the annual Gen Con convention. I was assigned to write up lite profiles of the gamer event. Factoring the hip, tech-savvy crowd was probably using social-media network Twitter to communicate, I tapped into that thread.

A pic I took of #gencon foam-pool noodle battle garnered over 200 clicks to Twit-pic.

Gen Con provided the first of jolt of the day not inside the Indiana Convention Center, but at a coffeehouse on Monument Circle. Au Bon Pain actually ran out of coffee early this morning, and gamers also formed long lines at nearby Dunkin' Donuts and at the java station inside Borders in Downtown. Guests and exhibitors are using the keyword #GenCon as a unified way to communicate via the social media website.