7 shot at beer distributor in Conn

[The_Dude 1,142]

dunno, most people i know that belong to a union know the union will be their hired pit bull if something shady is going on.

Well, they will fight harder for you if you are one of the cool kids

[Jenn! 918]

So sad. My dad works right down the street from this place.

[Ban Hammer 13,337]

Gunman Came Prepared to Connecticut Shooting

When Omar S. Thornton came to work at Hartford Distributors on Tuesday, he stashed a red metal lunchbox containing two 9-millimeter handguns in the kitchenette before going to a disciplinary hearing in the room next door, the authorities said. That set the stage for a shooting spree that appeared to show more cool calculation than impulsive employee outrage.

In a lengthy news conference on Wednesday outside the shuttered beer distributor in Manchester, Conn., the police gave chilling new details about the timeline of the chaotic early-morning scene that left nine people dead, including the shooter they identified as Mr. Thornton, a 34-year-old truck driver who was hired two years ago.

After Mr. Thornton signed his resignation letter, and asked his escorts for a glass of water in the kitchenette, he grabbed the guns from his lunchbox, the police said. He then ran into the hallway, chasing his first victims, then walked, and then ran again through the plant to gun down the final victims. He most likely shot his union representative and two managers deliberately, the police said, but purposely spared others including a woman in a wheelchair, before ending the rampage by turning the weapon on himself.

“He didn’t have a master list saying these are the people he was going to go after, but based upon some of the people that were victims, it’s probably likely that he was targeting some individuals,” Lt. Chris Davis of the Manchester police said. “He passed by many individuals and did not shoot them.” One, Lieutenant Davis said, was a “physically handicapped woman,” who spoke with investigators.

“She did make a comment that she was thankful to be alive,” Lieutenant Davis said. “She wasn’t sure why she was spared.”

The 911 tapes provide an eerie, real-time account of the rampage from the company’s executive, Steve Hollander, who was bunkered in an office, his head bleeding, he said, after Mr. Thornton shot him.

“We need the cops here right away — somebody got shot, I got shot,” Mr. Hollander says on the recording of his 911 call at 7:25 a.m., which the police released on Wednesday afternoon. “Omar Thornton is shooting people.”

Mr. Hollander continued: “I see him running now. There’s people running. He’s running away right now. He’s shooting at somebody else. He’s still shooting. He’s shooting at a girl! He’s still running after people, he’s not leaving.”

According to the police, Mr. Thornton may have kept his intentions from his own family, but his hiding the handguns in a lunchbox before the hearing showed that what he did was premeditated.

“He made no comment to his family,” Lieutenant Davis said. “Obviously if he brings that into work that, obviously, is something he is thinking of doing.”

Mr. Thornton had been trailed for about three weeks by a private investigator hired by the company, the police said, and that person apparently observed him take beer along his route. The company had video documenting his theft, and when Mr. Thornton reviewed it in his disciplinary hearing, he calmly remarked “how good their surveillance camera was,” Lieutenant Davis said.

Mr. Thornton then took a moment outside with his union representative to discuss his course of action, and signed a one-sentence resignation letter. His escorts, including his union representative, Bryan Cirigliano, brought him to the kitchenette next door, supposedly for a glass of water.

When Mr. Thornton retrieved his guns instead, Mr. Thornton walked into the hallway and shot Mr. Cirigliano first, according to John Hollis, a Connecticut Teamsters official who had been the president of the local there, Teamsters 1035, for 25 years. He knows nearly all of the company’s employees, and spent Tuesday speaking with survivors and remembering his friends, including Mr. Cirigliano, 51, the president of the local union for the last eight years.

“I can assure you, the last effort in his life — Bryan Cirigliano was fighting for this man’s job,” Mr. Hollis said.

A day after the shooting, relatives and friends of the victims comforted each other with memories of their loved ones. All eight people Mr. Thornton is accused of killing Tuesday were middle-aged, and many had been at the company for decades. Some, like the 60-year-old Craig Pepin, were only months away from retirement.

Mr. Hollis said that Mr. Pepin had been in company room with about 25 other drivers when he looked through the glass interior window and saw the gunman charging through the offices.

Mr. Pepin let out a scream that roared through the room, commanding his colleagues to listen to him if it were the last thing they would do. “There’s a shooter, get out!” he yelled, according to Mr. Hollis.

Mr. Pepin, himself, lagged behind to make sure everyone got out, and that was when Mr. Thornton shot him. “Some believe had he just run,” Mr. Hollis said, “he probably would have survived.”

Another victim, Victor James, 60, was also nearing retirement as a driver, his mother, Gloria Wilson, said.

On Wednesday, the police released the identities of all eight who were killed, including Francis Fazio Jr., 57, of Bristol, Conn.; Doug Scruton, 56, of Manchester, who worked at Hartford Distributors for three decades, most recently on the dock operating a forklift; Edward Kennison, 49, of East Hartford, was a driver; and William Ackerman, 51, of Broad Brook, Conn., worked in the warehouse.

Among those killed, Louis Felder, 50, of Stamford, Conn., may have been the exception in title and tenure, but not in dedication.

Hired in the last year as director of operations, Mr. Felder was the only nonunion member among the dead, and ran Mr. Thornton’s disciplinary meeting.

Mr. Felder developed his own warehouse management software that helped beer distributors track sales and losses to pilferage or breakage, according to a close friend.

“They loved him and they loved his software,” his friend, Reuben Askowitz, said of the Hollander family, which owns Hartford Distributors. Last year, Mr. Felder was named director of operations for the company, and was so enthusiastic about his job that he did not mind the grueling commute, two hours each way.

“He was loving life, getting up at 3 in the morning and driving up there and coming home,” Mr. Askowitz said. “Work never scared him.”

On one trip to Manchester, Mr. Felder’s car died. The Hollanders, Mr. Askowitz said, gave him one of their Audi A8 cars as a gift.

The funeral for Mr. Felder, a father of three and a prominent member of the Orthodox Jewish community in Stamford, was scheduled for Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the authorities were still trying to reconstruct the final minutes of the rampage, the latest in a series of American workplace tragedies.

On Tuesday morning, the authorities at first cordoned off the warehouse and entered it to discover one victim after another, ultimately finding Mr. Thornton in an office area, Chief Marc Montminy of the Manchester Police Department said on Tuesday.

“He was alive when police responded,” Chief Montminy said. “Police began clearing the building. He was funneled into an office area and took his own life.”

The chief said it was unclear whether Mr. Thornton had fired more than one gun in the attack. One law enforcement official said Mr. Thornton used a 9-millimeter Ruger in the attack. Another official, Lieutenant Davis of the Manchester police, said numerous guns were registered to Mr. Thornton, a tall, heavyset man with significant debts, a career as a truck driver for a number of companies in the state and a girlfriend who could not make sense of the slaughter.

On Wednesday, Lieutenant Davis said that police officers found a shotgun and a clip in Mr. Thornton’s car outside the distributor. A 40-caliber gun and a 22-caliber gun were also registered under his name.

Joanne Hannah said that her daughter Kristi had been dating Mr. Thornton for parts of the last eight years and that Mr. Thornton, who was black, had been having problems with co-workers. “Things were being put on the bathroom walls,” including a “hangman noose,” Ms. Hannah said.

Union officials said Mr. Thornton had never registered a complaint. “He never filed anything with the union,” said Christopher Roos, an official with the Teamsters local. “As far as I know, there was never a state claim or a federal claim. Mr. Thornton was brought into the office about a disciplinary issue, and that was it.”

The police have not released information about how much beer Mr. Thornton was accused of stealing, but that he was likely taking some while making his deliveries.

Mr. Thornton, who graduated from East Hartford High School in 1996, had driving infractions, records indicate, but no criminal history, the police said.

“He was a quiet person, not a mean bone in his body,” said Clayton Mack, 53, who shared a house with Mr. Thornton and Kristi Hannah for several years in Enfield, north of Hartford.

It was the nation’s deadliest rampage since 13 people were gunned down at Fort Hood, Tex., last November. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, has been charged in that case.

In a statement on Tuesday, Gov. M. Jodi Rell said that after the latest shootings “we are all left asking the same questions: How could someone do this? Why did they do this?”

The authorities said they would investigate the possibility that Mr. Thornton had in fact been harassed at the workplace over his race.

“In speaking with the company, the company has not reported any type of racial complaints on his behalf,” Lieutenant Davis said.

Joanne Hannah, the mother of Mr. Thornton’s girlfriend, said he had shown her daughter cellphone pictures of the walls of the bathroom at the warehouse, where slurs had been written and a stick figure hanging from a noose had been drawn.

Ms. Hannah also said Mr. Thornton had once called her daughter from a bathroom at the warehouse and held the phone up so she could hear his supervisor and another employee talking disparagingly about blacks.

Ms. Hannah said that after Mr. Thornton shot his victims, he called his mother and said he “wanted to say goodbye, to tell everyone he loved them and that he had shot five people.”

Mr. Thornton’s cousin Annette Levine described his final phone call to his mother as more incendiary, saying he had told her that he had shot “the five racists.”

“Those were his last words to her,” Ms. Levine said. “He loved her, and they pushed him over the edge.”

The disciplinary hearing appears to have lasted about a half-hour and to have involved Mr. Thornton, a union representative and one or more management officials, including Steve Hollander.

After Mr. Hollander made his 911 call and was rescued from the building, he was treated at Hartford Hospital and later released.

Mr. Hollander told The Associated Press that two people standing near him were shot in the head and killed, but he was only grazed in the jaw and the arm. “By just the grace of God, I don’t know how he missed me,” he said.

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[lostinblue 1,989]

UNIONS anyone think they are to blame?You have yourself a sweet job at twice the wage of a nonunion worker. All the benefits and they get fired. Their is no way they will ever get such a sweet job again. It is back to real work for the rest of your life at 1/2 the wage. That is enough to make union people blow up. Where do you think "to go postal " came from.

[Usui Takumi 1,562]

UNIONS anyone think they are to blame?You have yourself a sweet job at twice the wage of a nonunion worker. All the benefits and they get fired. Their is no way they will ever get such a sweet job again. It is back to real work for the rest of your life at 1/2 the wage. That is enough to make union people blow up. Where do you think "to go postal " came from.

Uh the post office?

[Heracles 417]

I don't understand workplace shootings... especially since most people hate their jobs.

Ever heard of mass deaths using a toaster, or anyone of the other objects you have used to defend guns in the past?

PS Spook, are these people [victims] the happy Americans you were talking about?

Edited August 5, 2010 by Heracles

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Ever heard of mass deaths using a toaster, or anyone of the other objects you have used to defend guns in the past?

PS Spook, are these people [victims] the happy Americans you were talking about?

You truly are ignorant.

[Heracles 417]

You truly are ignorant.

Right on cue. Wha Wha [insert insult]. Wha Wha you hate America. Wha Wha get out.. Yawn...

Edited August 5, 2010 by Heracles

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Right on cue. Wha Wha [insert insult]. Wha Wha you hate America. Wha Wha get out.. Yawn...

I rest my case.

[Heracles 417]

I rest my case.

Riight, how about answering the question. Are they ###### happy? yes or no

Edited August 5, 2010 by Heracles

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Riight, how about answering the question. Are they ###### happy? yes or no

No, they aren't happy. I doubt many murder victims are happy, except in Australia. A stupid question, but considering the source.............

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Ban alcohol. Well, at least beer. It is the "saturday Night Special" of alcohol. It worked when they did it last time, didn't it? I think, yeah, crime plummeted without alcohol.

[slim 1,525]

Ever heard of mass deaths using a toaster, or anyone of the other objects you have used to defend guns in the past?

I've heard of mass deaths using fire. Care to ban that?

PS Spook, are these people [victims] the happy Americans you were talking about?

They seemed like they were pretty happy before they were shot. Worked at the same company in a union job for years and years... that's sometimes called the American dream.

Seems like they were unhappy a black man who was 20 years their junior was set to take over their jobs.

This whole incident is almost a microcosm of why homicides in America happen. But, I'm sure without the availability of two handguns this would've never happened.

[Heracles 417]

I've heard of mass deaths using fire. Care to ban that?

Yes slim, anything can be used to kill. If I was selling a toaster, I'd classify it as a kitchen appliance. Whereas, a gun only serves one purpose, as a weapon to kill. Unfortunately it is not designed to hold the drapes up or be used as a lamp.

They seemed like they were pretty happy before they were shot. Worked at the same company in a union job for years and years... that's sometimes called the American dream.

Union job being a dream? Well I guess you are in the Midwest.

This whole incident is almost a microcosm of why homicides in America happen. But, I'm sure without the availability of two handguns this would've never happened.

Now you are getting it. Much the same way, without nuclear weapons, you cannot cause a Hiroshima type explosion. Likewise, pretty hard to get drunk without alcohol, no?

These things occur more the storms in the US, yet you will come on and downplay them. Well find how many similar and as frequent cases have occurred in AUS.

Edited August 5, 2010 by Heracles

[spookyturtle 9,465]

Yes slim, anything can be used to kill. If I was selling a toaster, I'd classify it as a kitchen appliance. Whereas, a gun only serves one purpose, as a weapon to kill. Unfortunately it is not designed to hold the drapes up or be used as a lamp.

Union job being a dream? Well I guess you are in the Midwest.

Now you are getting it. Much the same way, without nuclear weapons, you cannot cause a Hiroshima type explosion. Likewise, pretty hard to get drunk without alcohol, no?

These things occur more the storms in the US, yet you will come on and downplay them. Well find how many similar and as frequent cases have occurred in AUS.

Australia is irrelevant.