Gunman Kills 5, Self at Miss. Factory
Worker Armed With Shotgun, Rifle Kills Five, Self at Lockheed Martin Plant in Mississippi
The Associated Press
MERIDIAN, Miss. July 8 —
A factory worker known as a racist who talked about murdering others opened fire with a shotgun and a rifle at a Lockheed Martin plant Tuesday, killing five people before fatally shooting himself, authorities said.
Dozens of employees at the aircraft parts plant frantically rushed for cover after the gunman started firing in the nation's deadliest workplace shooting in 2 1/2 years. As many as eight people were wounded, some critically.
"At first I thought it was something falling on the ground. Then I walked to the aisle and saw him aiming his gun. I took off. Everybody took off," said Booker Steverson, a Lockheed Martin employee who was helping assemble an airplane when he heard the first shot.
Authorities identified the gunman as Doug Williams, who was an assembler at the plant in this city of 40,000 near the Alabama line. Steverson said Williams was known as a racist who did not like blacks. Williams was white.
"When I first heard about it, he was the first thing that came to my mind," said Jim Payton, who is retired from the plant, but had worked with Williams for about a year.
He said Williams had talked about wanting to kill people. "I'm capable of doing it," Payton quoted Williams as saying.
Sheriff Billy Sollie he had no information on whether the gunman had been in trouble with his bosses.
"We are not sure if those killed were friend or foe," the sheriff said. "There was no indication it involved race or gender as far as his targets were concerned."
Sollie said no other individuals were involved and his officers were securing the scene.
"He had a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle and he appeared to open fire at random on employees," Sollie said.
About two dozen people waited near a busy road outside the plant at midday. Law enforcement agents made vehicles go through checkpoints.
John Willis said he drove to the plant when he heard his brother, assembler Thomas Willis, had been shot.
"They've just had us standing out here," John Willis said solemnly, struggling to find words as he awaited word on his brother's condition.
A worker who didn't want to be identified or speak to reporters was offered a cold drink by friends. His hand shook violently as he drank from the plastic foam cup.
It was the nation's deadliest workplace shooting since a software tester in Wakefield, Mass., killed seven people the day after Christmas in 2000. I remember a few years ago an Xerox copy repairman went on a shooting spree in Hawaii, and there was the daytrader who flipped out in Atlanta, too. Locally, an insurance salesmen who had been let go by Firemen's Fund Insurance killed his former boss and another person after getting into the office building and shooting them in the cafeteria with a handgun. He later committed suicide in a public park where he played Frisbee on weekends.
Officials at the plant declined to comment and a Lockheed Martin national spokeswoman was unable to immediately provide details.
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said: "Mississippi's family grieves today for this senseless tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those lost."
Meridian has an economy largely dependent on the military. Besides the Lockheed Martin plant, the area is home to a naval air station and an Air National Guard training facility.
The Meridian plant employs about 150 people and builds parts for C-130J Hercules transport planes and vertical stabilizers for F-22 Raptor jets.
Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractor in the United States. The corporation had sales of $24 billion in 2001. It employs about 125,000 people.
