Shooter kills 5, hurts 5 officers at Illinois plant
Police say gunman slain in shootout in Chicago suburb
AURORA, Ill. — A gunman opened fire at a manufacturing plant in suburban Chicago 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 Gary Martin, 45, and said he was believed to be an employee at the Henry Pratt Co. in the city about 40 miles 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 law enforcement 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 centers 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. CST.
Several ATF teams also responded to the shooting and were at the scene, according to the agency’s Chicago spokeswoman, and the FBI said it 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 Friday afternoon. Probst says 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.
Probst said he wasn’t hurt but that another colleague was “bleeding pretty bad.”
The company makes valves for industrial purposes.
The White House said President Donald Trump was briefed on the shooting and monitoring the situation as he departed for a weekend trip to his home in Palm Beach, Fla. Trump tweeted his thanks to law enforcement officers in Aurora and offered his condolences to the victims and their families. “America is with you,” he said.
Presence Mercy Medical Center was treating two patients and a third had been transferred by helicopter to another hospital, spokesman Matt Wakely said. Advocate Good Sa- maritan Hospital and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital each had one patient from the shooting, spokeswoman Kate Eller said. Rush Copley Medical Center received three patients from the shooting and all are being treated for nonlife threatening injuries, spokeswoman Courtney Satlak said.
Gabriel Gonzales, an Iraq War Marine veteran who can see the Henry Pratt warehouse from his front yard, said the number of police vehicles, flashing lights and armored cars gave him flashbacks.
“When you are a combat zone you expect it,” Gonzales said. “I’ve never seen this many police officers anywhere.”
He was watching his grandchildren, who were mesmerized by the activity unfolding through the window, and worrying about their brother Anthony, whose school was put under lockdown.
“My grandson had a school lockdown at 8 years old. I mean, can you believe that?” Gonzalez said. “Back when I was a kid, it was just tornadoes.”
The Washington Post contributed.