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Sacked woman returns and kills 2
Source: Agencies |
September 11, 2010, Saturday
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A WOMAN who had just been suspended from her job and escorted from a Kraft Foods Inc facility returned with a handgun and opened fire, killing two people and critically injuring a third before being taken into custody about an hour later, police said.
The shooting happened on Thursday in the Philadelphia's northeast section inside a plant of the nation's largest food manufacturer, whose products include Oreo cookies, Lieutenant Frank Vanore said.
Kraft said in a statement that in addition to the three employees who were shot, a contract worker sustained a less serious injury, but it did not elaborate.
Kraft said the plant would be closed until further notice and the company would provide employees with counseling.
The woman returned to the building in a car 10 minutes after being escorted out and drove through a security barrier before re-entering the building on foot, Vanore said.
As she walked inside, she fired a shot at an employee who had followed her in and had yelled, "Hide, she's got a gun," Vanore said. That shot missed.
The woman then shot the three victims, said police, who didn't immediately know the victims' identities or whether they had been targeted.
Officers responded and isolated the shooter in a room, and she fired a shot at them but missed, Vanore said.
Officers freed seven people who were "in a bad position" near the woman and were hiding, Vanore said, but he wouldn't refer to them as hostages.
The shooter eventually was apprehended around 9:30pm, he said.
Television footage showed workers leaving the Northfield, Illinois -based company's plant, which used to be known as the Nabisco factory and is about six stories tall.
Police surrounded the plant minutes after the shooting, and roads in the area were detoured as officers swarmed nearby.
Dough mixer Andy Ryan, who has worked at the plant for nearly 30 years, said he was on the third floor when the sound of the shots echoed through the building, where cookies and crackers are made.
"I heard the gunfire, and I ran," he told The Associated Press, his apron still on.
"As I was running down the steps they were yelling, 'Oh, my God, there's three people shot!'"
The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reported that about 100 people were inside the plant but had been cleared out.
The identity of the suspended worker wasn't released, and police didn't say why she was suspended.
Mass shootings are rarely carried out by women in the United States, said Park Dietz, president of Threat Assessment Group Inc, a California-based violence prevention firm.
Some notable exceptions include a 1985 rampage at a mall in Springfield, Pennsylvania, that left three people dead and seven wounded.
Sylvia Seegrist was found guilty of murder but mentally ill in that case and was given three life sentences.
She said in 1991 she hoped she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life in prison and "maybe 15 or 20 years would be fair."
Earlier this year, Amy Bishop, a former instructor and researcher at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, was charged with murder in a campus shooting that left three biology professors dead and three other employees injured.
The shooting happened on Thursday in the Philadelphia's northeast section inside a plant of the nation's largest food manufacturer, whose products include Oreo cookies, Lieutenant Frank Vanore said.
Kraft said in a statement that in addition to the three employees who were shot, a contract worker sustained a less serious injury, but it did not elaborate.
Kraft said the plant would be closed until further notice and the company would provide employees with counseling.
The woman returned to the building in a car 10 minutes after being escorted out and drove through a security barrier before re-entering the building on foot, Vanore said.
As she walked inside, she fired a shot at an employee who had followed her in and had yelled, "Hide, she's got a gun," Vanore said. That shot missed.
The woman then shot the three victims, said police, who didn't immediately know the victims' identities or whether they had been targeted.
Officers responded and isolated the shooter in a room, and she fired a shot at them but missed, Vanore said.
Officers freed seven people who were "in a bad position" near the woman and were hiding, Vanore said, but he wouldn't refer to them as hostages.
The shooter eventually was apprehended around 9:30pm, he said.
Television footage showed workers leaving the Northfield, Illinois -based company's plant, which used to be known as the Nabisco factory and is about six stories tall.
Police surrounded the plant minutes after the shooting, and roads in the area were detoured as officers swarmed nearby.
Dough mixer Andy Ryan, who has worked at the plant for nearly 30 years, said he was on the third floor when the sound of the shots echoed through the building, where cookies and crackers are made.
"I heard the gunfire, and I ran," he told The Associated Press, his apron still on.
"As I was running down the steps they were yelling, 'Oh, my God, there's three people shot!'"
The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reported that about 100 people were inside the plant but had been cleared out.
The identity of the suspended worker wasn't released, and police didn't say why she was suspended.
Mass shootings are rarely carried out by women in the United States, said Park Dietz, president of Threat Assessment Group Inc, a California-based violence prevention firm.
Some notable exceptions include a 1985 rampage at a mall in Springfield, Pennsylvania, that left three people dead and seven wounded.
Sylvia Seegrist was found guilty of murder but mentally ill in that case and was given three life sentences.
She said in 1991 she hoped she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her life in prison and "maybe 15 or 20 years would be fair."
Earlier this year, Amy Bishop, a former instructor and researcher at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus, was charged with murder in a campus shooting that left three biology professors dead and three other employees injured.
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