Shooting in Connecticut Kills at Least 8, Police Say
People were evacuated from Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Conn., on Tuesday after at least eight people were killed in a workplace shooting there.
At least eight people are dead after an employee summoned for a disciplinary hearing opened fire at a beer distributor in Manchester, Conn., early on Tuesday morning, the police in Manchester said.
Police were at Hartford Distributors trying to determine the total number of fatalities, and Lt. J. Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police’s public information office said in an interview that one of the dead was the suspected shooter. “We do know that the suspect is deceased and there are several other fatalities at the facility,” Lieutenant Vance said.
He said that the suspect went on a rampage in the warehouse and then “probably” turned the gun on himself. “We’re still piecing a lot of it together now,” he said. According to Sgt. Sandy Ficara of the Manchester Police Department, “At least eight are dead, and we’re trying to make contact with some of the families now.”
He added in a telephone interview, “It’s been a crazy scene out there.”
John Hollis, a legislative affairs representative for the Connecticut Teamsters, said in an interview from Manchester that the suspected shooter was a driver for the company, the last to be hired within the previous three years. Mr. Hollis was at the scene helping union members and employees in the aftermath of the shooting.
He identified the suspect as Omar Thornton and said he had run through the warehouse at the busiest time of the morning, right before 7:30 a.m. At that point, more than 100 drivers, sales people and executives would have been in the building during a shift change.
“He came in to meet with the company and after that, all hell broke loose,” Mr. Hollis said. “He pulled the gun and ran through the warehouse.”
Mr. Hollis said State Police told him they confronted the suspected shooter and ordered him to drop the gun. The suspect likely shot himself, Lieutenant Vance said, adding, “There was no police discharge of weapons.” Lt. Joe San Antonio, a spokesman for the Manchester police, said that when his officers responded to an emergency call at 7:30, they searched the building and found the suspect shot. The gunman had been called in for a disciplinary hearing that could have 8 Reported Dead in Workplace Shooting - NYTimes.com
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