At least 2 dead in Hesston, Kansas, workplace shooting

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quote: Kansas

Where is that

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As many as six people may have been killed at a manufacturing plant in Kansas on Thursday by a man who drove through at least two towns shooting a gun out his car window, the police said. T. Walton, the sheriff of Harvey County, told reporters that the shooting occurred at a factory owned by Excel Industries, a company that makes riding mowers and other lawn care equipment, in Hesston.

He said that four to seven people, including the gunman, had been killed and that as many as 30 more were injured. The gunman was killed by law enforcement officers at the scene, he said. “We have numerous people shot inside the building, we have a number of people killed inside the building,” the sheriff said at a news conference. “I don’t have an exact count for you right now.”

Sheriff Walton said there were at least three other crime scenes in Newton, Kan., a nearby town, where the gunman repeatedly opened fire as he drove to his main target, the factory. “Those are all connected,” the sheriff said. “He was traveling and shooting from his car.”

Sheriff Walton said that the gunman was an employee of Excel Industries, but that it was possible he might have recently been fired. His name was not released. A factory employee, Marty Pierce, told KAKE-TV, a local ABC affiliate, that the gunman entered the plant and “started spraying everyone” with bullets in the assembly area near the paint department. “I thought it was a fire or an explosion, I didn’t know someone was shooting, but then our robot operator decided to go look down the hallway and he got shot,” Mr. Pierce said. He said he fled the building and sought refuge in the parking lot while shots continued to ring out in the plant. “It’s a big trial and tribulation that’s going on,” he said.

Nicole Goodwin, the wife of a factory supervisor, spoke to reporters while she waited outside the plant for her husband, who she said called her after the shooting to say he was unharmed. “I got a phone call saying they got put on lockdown because some random guy came in with an AK-47 and started shooting,” Nicole Goodwin, the wife of a factory supervisor, told the local ABC affiliate.

Ms. Goodwin said a close friend had been rushed to the hospital with serious injuries. “I’m just worried about everybody that I know here,” she said. Chris Mueller, another relative interviewed outside the factory, said he was told that the gunman was a former employee who arrived at the factory during break time and opened fire, first in the parking lot and later in the building. “He showed up at break time in a pickup,” Mr. Mueller said. “He shot a lady in the parking lot, then shot at people in the lobby. ”Sheriff Walton confirmed that timeline and said that the woman shot in the parking lot was in critical condition at a hospital.

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