Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: gofaster on July 08, 2003, 01:43:31 PM
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Its that time of year when employees go through their performance reviews with management. Coincidence?
======From Associate Press Newswire ============
6 Die in Shooting at Miss. Lockheed Plant
Worker Opens Fire at Miss. Lockheed Plant, Killing 5 Before Turning Gun on Himself, Sheriff Says
The Associated Press
MERIDIAN, Miss. July 8 —
An employee opened fire at a Lockheed Martin plant Tuesday, killing five people before killing himself, authorities said. Eight other people were taken to hospitals.
Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie confirmed the deaths and injuries.
"He had a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle and he appeared to open fire at random on employees," Sollie said.
The shooting broke out around 9:30 a.m. Sollie said no other individuals were involved and his officers were securing the scene. Investigators had no motive, he said.
Sollie didn't release the name of the gunman but said he was a Lockheed Martin employee. He had no information on whether the man 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."
Officials at the plant declined to comment and a Lockheed Martin national spokeswoman was unable to immediately provide details.
"We're just trying to gather information and are working with state and local authorities to determine the details of the incident," said spokeswoman Meaghan Mariman from the company's Bethesda, Md., headquarters. She says the plant employs roughly 150 people.
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, a city of about 40,000 near the Alabama line, 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 builds parts for the C-130J Hercules and vertical stabilizers for F-22 Raptor jets, which are assembled at the plant in Marietta, Ga., along with military transport planes.
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.
Subsidiary Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. is based in Fort Worth, Texas.
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Wow, how scary is that? He walks on to a National Defense Factory with multiple weapons. I've been at the L/M plant in Ft.Worth and Bell Helicopter in Ft. Worth and both had tight security. You don't even want to carry a big pocket knife in there.
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yeah that is strange indeed, maybe it happened in the aprking lot.
That plant if awfully close to here:(
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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.
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jeez they knew the guy was nuts. i think these companys should be forced to pay for therapits for its employees.
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A lot of factories like that just have a badge check. A lot of times there are exercise facilities onsite so it's not uncommon for somebody to walk in with a big gym bag...
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Good thing he didnt have a knife. it would have been way worse.
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If only the workers had all been armed, they could have stopped him before he fired a shot.
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Wakefield eh? There's a Wakefield just up the road from me. I don't know why, but I'm fascinated by towns named after English counterparts. Makes me wonder what other similarities they have apart from the name.
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Just another pig scum racist at work fellas.
Too bad he did not just kill himself first insteed of killing all those people.
Sick butter.
I heard on news that 4out of the 5 people he killed where balck as was most if not all of the wounded.
He was clearly targeting blacks.
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Sad
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Originally posted by Pongo
Good thing he didnt have a knife. it would have been way worse.
Good point, tool, good point!
SOB
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Originally posted by Frogm4n
jeez they knew the guy was nuts. i think these companys should be forced to pay for therapits for its employees.
Why should they be forced to pay for therapy? It makes a whole lot more sense for them to just fire his crazy bellybutton and replace him with someone who isn't going to walk in one day with a shotgun and a rifle. Cheaper, too, because a guy like that could be in therapy his whole life and it probably wouldn't change a damn thing.
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They should make it illegal to kill people.
Agree with funked tho... If someone with a cncealed carry permit were there it woulda ended sooner... hell... if it were known that there were people with concealed carry permits in the building it woulda never happened at all.
shootings allmost allways happen in places where the shooter is convinced that all his victims will be unarmed. They may be suicidal but they are cowardly and they want to "have an impact". Sorta like strat guys in the ma in that way... Hmmm... do ya suppose? Naa..
lazs
Public Relations Officer for the BK's
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Reports I hear say this guy was just oozing warning signs. Like when he showed for work a couple weeks ago with his KKK hat. He talked about killing blacks to others, and he had just gone through a nasty divorce.
Then the company puts him in a classroom with 4-5 black guys to take an ethics class....... that set him off.
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Originally posted by lazs2
shootings allmost allways happen in places where the shooter is convinced that all his victims will be unarmed.
Actually, shootings occur only when there's a gun present. No gun = no shooting. Quite a simple concept, really. There's something wrong with American gun law when an individual such as the assailant is able to lay his hands on a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle. Some have been quick to point out that a solution would have been for all others to be armed. A better solution would have been for no-one to be armed...
...and that's the viewpoint taken by the governments of unarmed societies. Things are not perfect here, and we lose about 50-100 people each year to shootings, but that's a damn sight better than losing thousands upon thousands.
Those who died in this incident can be cited as heroes, albeit posthumously. Their deaths were the price that must be paid for America to uphold the 2nd Amendment, and the citizens' right to bear arms. Only 5 dead? A small cost indeed - some would say a pittance.
I wonder how the bereaved relatives feel about that. :confused:
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Some have been quick to point out that a solution would have been for all others to be armed. A better solution would have been for no-one to be armed...
I´ts like WMD´s really, its not the WMD thats dangerous to the people of the world, its the person behind the WMD thats dangerous!
Conclousion : Let all countrys that have an "sane" leader have WMD´s.
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beetle.. If you promise that everyone else will give up their firearms and play nice then I may give up mine... but probly not.
Point is... the place where the shooting took place was a "gun free zone" just like schools are. There were laws that protected all those guys that died... in the end... it would have been better if someone would have been armed and stopped the guy.
lazs
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Originally posted by lazs2
beetle.. If you promise that everyone else will give up their firearms and play nice then I may give up mine... but probly not.
Point is... the place where the shooting took place was a "gun free zone" just like schools are. There were laws that protected all those guys that died... in the end... it would have been better if someone would have been armed and stopped the guy.
lazs
The assailant himself should have been a gun free zone.
Fair comment about giving up firearms etc. At least now I can see why you feel safer in a rough bar in an even rougher part of London than you do inside your own residence in CA. Unfortunately, I don't think America can squeeze the post frontiersmen era toothpaste back into the tube. And you're always going to have crimes like this as a result. We had one in England once, back in 1986 - in Berkshire of all places. That's the county where I live.
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Yes if we ban all guns now such crimes will never happend, I mean if possesion of guns was illegal, nobody, and I mean nobody would dare break that law and acquire an illegal black market weapon if they wanted to murder a bunch of people - because, naturally, murderers are fine people with respect for laws...
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beetle.. you can't put the firearms genie back in the bottle.. they have been invented.. Hving your bobbies hide em in the trunk and pretend to not be wearing bullet proof vests is not my idea of a solution. The guy that did the shooting ignored the fact that it was illegal to have a firearm at the workplace. someone allway will ignore the law.
We have a big country. It is spread out and it is bordered by a third world country. We have porous borders and a legacy of Black against White. I would change these things if I could but... I can't so I will do the next best thing and be armed.
I don't take englands view.. I don't thing a burglar deserves to live. His rights stop when he breaks into my house... the world is a better place for his death.... It is a much better place tho if he is simply afraid to break and enter. Only the armed citizen can make that happen.
lazs
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"The assailant himself should have been a gun free zone. "
Maybe he should have been a hate free zone! I bet the factory didnt have a single "This is a hate free zone" sign poted on the walls. Maybe then he wouldnt have been a KKK type..
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Oh and beetle... about 90% of the gun crimes that happen in the U.S. don't bother me at all. I really don't care what gang shoots what gang so long as they don't kill or wound too many "innocent" bystanters... Sorta like the old iran iraq war... who cares who was winning.
lazs
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Archie Bunker from All in the Family (http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/home.html) on Gun Control.
Gloria: 65% of the people murdered in the last ten years were killed by handguns!
Archie: Would it make you feel any better little girl if they was pushed outta windows?
http://www.wccta.net/gallery/driftysplace/abgun[1].wav
Well would it?
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Originally posted by lazs2
Oh and beetle... about 90% of the gun crimes that happen in the U.S. don't bother me at all. I really don't care what gang shoots what gang so long as they don't kill or wound too many "innocent" bystanters... Sorta like the old iran iraq war... who cares who was winning.
lazs
Exactly... natural selection. Just one less future welfare recipient.
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Why the Fuc can I see beetle's posts! I checked he is still on ignore....
Oh well I will just add him again.
:rolleyes: