Man shoots 4 co-workers, killing 3, authorities say

A disgruntled employee shot several workers at a North Carolina lumber company, killing three and seriously wounding a fourth before he went home and shot himself, officials said.

The gunman, identified as Ronald Dean Davis, 50, was in serious condition at a hospital after he shot himself with a handgun in his home in Ether, N.C., according to the Montgomery County sheriff’s office. A sixpage handwritten note by Davis was found, but officials said they could not divulge the contents or explain the possible motive for the rampage.

“It appears the lone gunman entered the workplace, went up to certain people and commenced firing,” Montgomery County Sheriff Dempsey Owens said in a telephone interview.

“I am under the impression that he knew who he went after,” Owens said at an afternoon news conference.

According to authorities, the sheriff ’s office received an emergency call about 6:15 a.m. saying there was a possible shooting at the McBride Lumber Co. about a mile north of Star, a rural town in central North Carolina. When sheriff ’s deputies arrived, they found three employees dead from blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun and a fourth seriously wounded.

There were about 16 employees in the warehouse when the shooting took place, and one of the workers told authorities that Davis had left and was heading home, according to the sheriff ’s office.

When deputies got to nearby Ether, they looked into the house and saw Davis “sitting on a couch with his head hung down.” They entered and found Davis with a self-inflicted wound to the head, a handgun and the note.

The sheriff described Star as a small town with between 800 and 850 full-time residents. “It’s a quiet neighborhood, rural,” Owens said. “What we would call a good American hometown.”

In the 23 years that Owens said he had been working in the area, “it’s the first time we’ve had so much devastation in any workplace.”