Killer of 5 expected to be fired
AURORA, Ill. — The man who gunned down five co-workers and wounded a sixth at a suburban Chicago manufacturing warehouse before shooting and wounding five police officers brought his gun to a meeting in which he was going to be fired, authorities said Saturday.
Because Gary Martin brought his gun to Friday’s meeting at the sprawling Henry Pratt Co. warehouse in Aurora, he likely knew he might be about to lose the job he had held for 15 years, police Chief Kristen Ziman said at a news conference.
Ziman said she didn’t know what had been conveyed to Martin, why he was being fired or whether he had shown up for his regular shift or was there just for the meeting.
But she said as soon as he was fired, he pulled his handgun and began shooting.
Three of the five coworkers he killed were in the room with him and the other two were just outside, she said.
Frantic calls to 911 started
pouring in from frightened workers at 1:24 p.m. and officers arrived within four minutes, authorities said.
Martin fired on the officers when they arrived, striking one outside and another near the building’s entrance.
The other three wounded officers were shot inside the building.
None of their wounds were considered lifethreatening, Ziman said Saturday.
After that flurry of shots, Martin ran off and hid inside the 29,000-squarefoot building.
Police used an armoured rescue vehicle called a Bearcat to enter the building, Aurora Police Lt. Rick Robertson said.
Teams of officers then began to search the massive building, finding Martin hiding in the back about an hour later and killed him in an exchange of gunfire, he said.
“He was probably waiting for us to get to him there,” said Robertson. “It was just a very short gunfight and it was over, so he was basically in the back waiting for us and fired upon us and our officers fired.”