ILLNOIS FACTORY SHOOT RAMPAGE
Irate worker kills five, then is slain
A factory worker who was about to be fired went on a shooting rampage at his workplace in Illinois on Friday, shooting dead five people and wounding five cops before being killed, authorities and reports said.
The chaotic incident unfolded at about 1:25 p.m. local time at the Henry Pratt Company, one of North America’s largest manufacturers of water valves, in the city of Aurora.
Gunman Gary Martin, 45 — who had worked for the company for 15 years — was told he was being fired when he arrived at work.
He then wielded a pistol with a laser scope and opened fire inside the facility, prompting a massive police response within minutes to the 29,000-square-foot building, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said at a press conference.
By 1:28 p.m., officers with the Aurora Police Department arrived on the scene “and were fired upon immediately,” Ziman said, noting that two of the initial four officers who entered the building were hit and wounded.
“Additional officers began to arrive and were also fired upon,” Ziman said, adding that “a total of five officers were struck by gunfire.”
The wounded officers were in stable condition, a city official told CNN.
Ziman said several teams of officers went inside the facility “to locate and engage the offender,” and when they found him, “they engaged in gunfire with him, ultimately killing him.”
“At this time we are not sure of the motive of this act of violence,” Ziman said.
But Tameka Martin, who identified herself as the shooter’s sister, told radio station WBEZ that her brother was about to be let go from the company.
His mom told the Chicago SunTimes that her son “was way too stressed out’’ about losing his job.
Tameka added, “He shot officers, so if they did shoot him, and kill him, they was, I guess, defending themselves.”
Henry Pratt employee John Probst described the mayhem that unfolded in the plant.
“One of the guys was up in the office,” Probst told ABC-7 Chicago.
“He said this person was shooting, and he come running down and he was bleeding pretty bad, and the next thing you know, he was walking back and forth. I heard more shots, and we just left the building,”
Probst said he and another coworker escaped the building through a back door.
Mayor Richard Irvin called Friday “a sad day in the city of Aurora.”
“It’s a shame that mass shootings such as this have become commonplace in our country,” Irvin said, adding “We will come together and heal as one Aurora.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said: “There are no words for the kinds of evil that robs our neighbors of their hopes and their dreams and their futures.
“To the families of the victims here in Aurora there are no words I can offer to lessen the pain but know that our state grieves with you,” the governor said.
President Trump said in a tweet Friday: “Great job by law enforcement in Aurora, Illinois. Heartfelt condolences to all of the victims and their families. America is with you!”
Aurora is a city of 200,000 people that is roughly 40 miles west of Chicago.