The dead were shot inside Excel Industries, a plant in Hesston that makes lawn mower products, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said.
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A report by ABC News, which cited two law enforcement officers familiar with the investigation, said that the suspect was indeed Ford, a 38-year-old Excel employee.
Walton said police surrounded the gunman’s home after the shooting but his male roommate refused to allow them in, resulting in a standoff. He worked with the shooter, identified as Cedric Ford.
Recent mass shootings in the United States include Saturday’s rampage by an Uber driver that left six people dead in MI, the December terror attack in San Bernardino, California, that left 14 people dead, and the December 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre that killed 26, including 20 children.
Walton sheriff said the gunman had hit at least two of the victims in the street before entering the premises of Excel, including opening fire in ‘painting workshop. Wesley Medical Center has three critical patients from this incident, and another patient is in surgery.
“There were some things that triggered this particular individual”, Walton said, declining to provide more details. Walton says the attacks were connected and that the suspect traveled between the sites and fired from his vehicle.
Police said all the deaths occurred at the Excel plant, reports CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez.
Investigators are unclear on what the shooter’s motive was, but Walton said it was “not terrorism”.
HESSTON, KS (WKOW) – CNN reports there is an active shooter situation in Hesston, Kansas, which is north of Wichita.
“I saw the shooter get out of his truck, shoot someone down and go into the building”, Gerald reportedly said. “I saw the shell casings come out of the assault rifle”, Jarrell said. The lockdown began at about 5:20 p.m. Thursday. The company manufactures Hustler and Big Dog mowing equipment and was founded in Hesston in 1960.
Authorities say a man who opened fire on the central Kansas factory where he worked was served with a protection from abuse order shortly before the attack.
An employee opened gunfire at Kansas’ Excel Industries, leaving many of his coworkers dead or injured, before authorities killed him.
Walton said authorities are expected to release the name of the officer on Friday morning.
McCaskill said he’d seen the shooter around and had heard that his girlfriend had recently broken up with him.
EMS workers gather a staging area by Excel Industries in Hesston, Kan., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, where a gunman killed an undetermined number of people and injured many more.
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“I was working in the weld shop…and then some paint people came out and said ‘fire! fire, ‘ and I thought the place was on fire”, Pierce told KAKE, the ABC affiliate in Wichita, Kansas. A college nearby was briefly locked down.
