ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- UPDATE - 3 p.m. statement from St. Louis City Police Department:
At approximately 6:30 a.m., on January 7, 2010, police received a call for a shooting at ABB Incorporated, a transformer manufacturing company, located at 4350 Semple Avenue. Employees identified the shooter as a current ABB employee. Police received information that multiple persons were wounded and that the suspect’s whereabouts were unknown.
Police quickly set up a perimeter around the building. The department’s tactical teams responded and made entry into the complex. A white male believed to be the suspect was located inside the complex with what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Though the investigation is in its early stages, investigators have determined that the suspect shot at least eight (8) other people before then shooting and killing himself.
Of the eight (8) other persons shot, three (3) were pronounced dead at the scene and five (5) were taken to area hospitals with injuries. Of the five (5) taken to hospitals, three (3) are listed in critical condition and two (2) are listed in fair condition.
The department is working to make next of kin notifications before releasing the names of the deceased victims. The suspect’s name will be released upon positive identification to be made by the suspect’s next of kin. Though the department cannot yet release the suspect’s name, we are confident that the suspect in this incident is the person found deceased at the scene.
Investigators are working closely with the executives at ABB Incorporated in an effort to gain more information about the suspect and his status at ABB prior to the shooting.
The department is being assisted by St. Louis County Police, the Missouri Highway Patrol and several federal agencies.
Previous story:
A snowy morning of gunfire, panic and blood at a north St. Louis manufacturing facility, as a worker firing an assault rifle and handgun kills at least three people and wounds five others.
Names of the victims were not yet released. Three of the wounded were in critical condition and two were in fair condition, police said. Sources at the scene told KMOX that the gunman was among the dead, but police have not yet confirmed that.
The alleged shooter, Timothy Hendron, 51, of Webster Groves, was involved in a pension benefit lawsuit with his employer, Swiss-based ABB, a maker of power transmissions and industrial automation equipment located at 4350 Semple Avenue.
The shooting started around 6:30 a.m., as the St. Louis area was waking up to several inches of snow and sub zero windchills. During a shift change as some 50 people were at the plant, workers heard several shots ring out in rapid succession.
Witnesses tell KMOX Hendron showed up at work with a shotgun and an assault rifle. He shot his first two victims at point blank range, about eight feet.
They say as a security guard ran way, he yelled, "Why are you running, pig" and shot at him.
As terrified employees jumped in their cars to escape, Hendron allegedly opened fire on their vehicles.
Other workers hid in closets, in the boiler room and even on the roof waiting for police to arrive.
A company employee tells KMOX Hendron worked on the assembly line, and his first victims were assembly line supervisors.
He says he met Hendron a couple of times and he seemed "jovial."
The killing spree came on the same week that a trial had begun in Kansas City federal court of a lawsuit filed by Hendron and other ABB workers. It's not clear whether the shooting was motivated by the court fight.
At issue in the suit, originally filed in 2006, was whether the company had imposed "unreasonable and excessive" fees in its 401K plan. The lawsuit seeks to recover losses. The jury trial is expected to last three weeks.
ABB Group employs some 270 people at the north St. Louis plant. It's one of a hundred countries where the firm has operations. In total, ABB has some 120,000 workers. Last fall, it reported third-quarter earnings of more than a billion dollars.
The company released a statement to the Associated Press. Thomas Schmidt, an ABB corporate spokesman in Zurich, Switzerland, said in statement:
"This is obviously a very serious situation and we are working to gather more information as it becomes available,'' the statement said. "The welfare of our employees is of utmost importance to us.''
Meanwhile, on the street where he lived -- Dobbin Road in south Webster Groves -- neighbors shovelling their driveways expressed astonishment that "one of their own" from the quiet, middle class street was at the heart of the shooting.
A man who asked not to be identified said that the accused shooter was someone he had seen working in the yard, but that he was "normal, like any other man."
Webster Groves police report that no one else at the suspect's house was hurt or missing and that no note had been found foreshadowing the shooting spree. Webster Police tell KMOX they have never had any domestic disturbance calls or any type of problem reports from the house.
Word of Hendron's alleged involvement in the shooting stunned his neighbors in Webster Groves. Many neighbors described Hendron as an amicable family man who kept a well-manicured home for his wife and small boy.
"I couldn't ask for a better neighbor. We never had any problems with him,'' said Glennon Meyer, a 71-year-old retiree who
credits Hendron with friendly gestures ranging from raking Meyer's leaves to bringing over a chocolate cake last Christmas.
A few years ago, Meyer said, Hendron mentioned something in passing about having problems on the job. Hendron didn't elaborate.
"Gee, I've talked to Tim many times, and he never exhibited any mental aberration,'' Meyer said.
Ron Hawkins, who lives across the street from Hendron's split-level home, echoed that. "He seems like a really nice guy,'' said Hawkins, 72. "I know nothing negative about he and the family.''
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