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Illinois
man
being
fired
from job
fatally
shoots 5
workers
By
CARRIE
ANTLFINGER
and
AMANDA
SEITZ
APNews.com
AURORA,
Ill. -
The
frantic
calls
started
pouring
in at
1:24
p.m. A
gunman
was
shooting
people
inside a
sprawling
manufacturing
warehouse
in
Aurora,
Illinois.
Within
four
minutes,
the
first
police
officers
rushed
to the
29,000-square-foot
building
and were
fired on
immediately;
one was
struck
outside
and four
others
shot
inside.
By
the time
the
chaos
ended
Friday
afternoon,
five
male
employees
of Henry
Pratt Co
were
found
dead and
the
gunman
was
killed
in a
shootout
with
police
after a
90-minute
search
of the
sprawling
warehouse.
Five
male
police
officers
were
hospitalized
with
injuries
that
were not
life
threatening.
And
the
suburban
Chicago
city was
left
asking,
“Why?”
“For
so many
years,
we have
seen
similar
situations
throughout
our
nation
and the
horrible
feeling
that we
get when
we see
it on
the
news. To
experience
it
first-hand,
is even
more
painful,”
said
Aurora
Mayor
Richard
C.
Irvin.
Aurora
Police
Chief
Kristen
Ziman
said the
gunman,
45-year-old
Gary
Martin,
was
being
fired
from his
job
Friday
after
15-years
with the
company.
“We
don’t
know
whether
he had
the gun
on him
at the
time or
if he
went to
retrieve
it,”
Ziman
said.
She
also
said
that
authorities
don’t
yet know
if the
employees
firing
him were
among
the
victims.
The
names of
those
killed
were not
immediately
released.
In
addition
to the
five
employees
killed,
a sixth
worker
was
taken to
a
hospital
with
injuries
that
were not
life
threatening.
A sixth
police
officer
suffered
a knee
injury
while
officers
were
searching
the
building.
The
shooting
shocked
the city
of
200,000
that is
about 40
miles
(65
kilometers)
west of
Chicago.
Christy
Fonseca
often
worries
about
some of
the
gang-related
crimes
and
shootings
around
her
mother’s
Aurora
neighborhood.
But she
never
expected
the type
of phone
call she
got from
her mom
on
Friday,
warning
her to
be
careful
with an
active
shooter
loose in
the
town.
Police
cars
with
screaming
sirens
revved
past her
as she
drove to
her
mother’s
house,
where
the
Henry
Pratt
building
is
visible
from the
porch
stoop.
It was
only
when
they
flipped
on the
television
news
that
they
realized
Martin
had
killed
people
just a
few
hundred
feet
away.
“In
Aurora,
period,
we’d
never
thought
anything
like
this
would
happen,”
Fonseca,
a
lifelong
resident,
said as
she
looked
out at
the
warehouse
where
Henry
Pratt
makes
valves
for
industrial
purposes.
At
Acorn
Woods
Condominiums
where
Martin
lived, a
mix of
brick
apartments
and
condos
nestled
on a
quiet
street
just a
mile and
a half
from the
shooting,
neighbors
gathered
on
sidewalks
near
Martin’s
unit
talking
and
wondering
among
themselves
if they
knew or
had come
in
contact
with
him.
Mary
McKnight
stepped
out of
her car
with a
cherry
cheesecake
purchased
for her
son’s
birthday,
to find
a flurry
of
police
cars,
officers
and
media
trucks.
“This is
a
strange
thing to
come
home to,
right,”
she
said.
She had
just
learned
that the
shooter
lived
close by
and his
unit in
the
complex
had been
taped
off by
police.
Asked if
Martin’s
rampage
had been
a
“classic”
workplace
shooting,
police
chief
Ziman
said:
“I
don’t
know. We
can only
surmise
with a
gentleman
that’s
being
terminated
that
this was
something
he
intended
to do.”
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