Gunman kills 5 at Illinois plant
AURORA, Illinois — An employee of a manufacturing company opened fire at its suburban Chicago plant on Friday, killing five people and wounding five police officers before he was fatally shot, police said.
Aurora police Chief Kristen Ziman told a news conference that the gunman was 45-year-old Gary Martin and said he was believed to be an employee at the Henry Pratt Co. — which makes valves for industrial purposes — in the city about 65 kilometres west of Chicago. She told reporters that officers arrived within four minutes of receiving reports of the shooting and were fired upon as soon as they entered the 29,000-squarefoot manufacturing warehouse.
Police said they did not know the gunman’s motive.
“May God bless the brave lawenforcement officers who continue to run toward danger,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at the news conference.
Hospitals reported treating at least seven patients from the shooting, though their conditions weren’t released. Two of the officers were airlifted to trauma centres in Chicago, Ziman said. She said a sixth officer suffered a knee injury. Officials did not say the total number of people injured other than the police officers.
Dozens of first-responder vehicles converged on the building housing the company in Aurora after police received multiple calls about an active shooter at 1:24 p.m.
Several teams from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives responded to the shooting and were at the scene, according to the agency’s Chicago spokeswoman. The FBI also responded.
John Probst, an employee at the Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora, told ABC7 that he ran out of the back door as the shooting unfolded. Probst said he recognized the gunman and that he works for the company.
“What I saw was the guy running down the aisle with a pistol with a laser on it,” Probst said. He said he wasn’t hurt, but that another colleague was “bleeding pretty bad.”
“It’s a shame that mass shootings such as this have become commonplace in our country,” said Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin. “It’s a shame that a cold and heartless offender would be so selfish as to think he has the right to take an innocent life.”
The White House said U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and monitoring the situation as he prepared to depart for a weekend trip to his home in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump tweeted his thanks to lawenforcement officers in Aurora and offered his condolences to the victims and their families.
“America is with you,” he said.