5 killed in workplace shooting at Ill. factory
Five police officers also are wounded; suspect fatally shot
An employee of a manufacturing company opens fire at its suburban Chicago plant, killing five people and wounding five officers before he is fatally shot by police.
the shooting and were at the scene, according to the agency’s Chicago spokeswoman, and the FBI said it also responded.
John Probst, a company employee, told ABC7 that he ran out 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.
Probst said he wasn’t hurt but that another colleague was “bleeding pretty bad.”
Mayor Richard Irvin said that “it’s a shame that mass shootings such as this have become commonplace in our country. 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.”
At Acorn Woods Condominiums, where Martin lived, neighbors gathered on sidewalks near his unit, talking and wondering among themselves if they knew or had come in contact with him. The site is just a mile and a half from the shooting.
Mary McKnight stepped out of her car with a cherry cheesecake purchased for her son’s birthday and found a flurry of police cars, officers and media trucks.
“This is a strange thing to come home to, right,” she said. She had just learned that the shooter lived close by and that his unit in the complex had been taped off.
The White House said 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, 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 Samaritan 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 were being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, spokeswoman Courtney Satlak said.
AURORA, Ill. — An employee of a manufacturing company opened fire at its suburban Chicago plant Friday, killing five people and wounding five police officers before he was fatally shot, police said.
Police Chief Kristen Ziman of Aurora, Ill., identified the gunman as 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 40 miles west of Chicago. Ziman told a news conference 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,” 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, whether police or civilians.
Dozens of first-responder vehicles converged on the building housing the company after police received multiple calls about an active shooter at 1:24 p.m.
Several teams with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also responded to