Fired worker who killed 5 liked to play with drones

CHICAGO: When Gary Martin came to work at the Henry Pratt valve manufacturing plant in Aurora, Illinois, on Friday, he was told he was being terminated from his job.

Shortly thereafter, Martin pulled out his Smith & Wesson revolver and opened fire.

Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said Martin shot six fellow employees, five of them fatally, at the sprawling warehouse where he had worked for 15 years, and wounded five police officers before he was killed by police 90 minutes later.

She said police had yet to determine whether the shooting was an impulsive act or premeditated. Police had executed a search warrant at his residence to further their investigation of what she called a “workplace shooting”.

Jeremy Sherman, a neighbour of Martin’s at Acorn Woods Condominium Complex in Aurora, 65km west of here, told Newsweek’s Daily Beast website that Martin could often be found outside playing with his remotecontrol toy cars and drones.

Public records showed Martin had a criminal past, a 1995 conviction for aggravated assault in Marshall County, Mississippi.

A fellow employee, John Probst, told CNN that Martin fired his pistol with a green laser sight at fellow workers.

The shooting came a day after the one-year anniversary of the massacre of 17 people by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.