The suspect shot one person in the factory parking lot before opening fire inside the building, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.
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Court records show that Ford was a felon who previously lived in Miami and was on probation with a series of convictions in Florida, including burglary in 2000.
The federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm bureau has taken responsibility for investigating the nature of the guns and ammo.
Sarah T. Hopkins, 28, was in jail awaiting a court appearance Monday on charges that she gave Ford a semi-automatic rifle similar to an AK-47 and a Glock.40-caliber handgun.
A phone call to a number listed for her was not answered. Both have children, but not together, records show.
The Newton police discovered the location of Ford’s residence, a mobile home in Newton. They exchanged gunfire. The officer fatally shot Ford. The protection order against him was filed in Wichita, but Walton did not detail why or who filed it, beyond that the filer wasn’t working at Excel. Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive in those attacks.
Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Lt. Lin Dehning said while Kansas law prohibits people under protection orders from possessing weapons or ammunition, the law does not provide a mechanism for officers to seize weapons when they serve them with the order. She wrote that he pushed and grabbed her.
On Thursday, Ford left work early without explanation before returning hours later with a rifle, according to a co-worker.
Ford yelled “hey” at a bystander nearby and then shot that person, Jarrell said.
Clarissa McCartney, a nursing student at Hutchinson Community College who knew Ford, said he was charismatic and approachable. There were reports of shooting in the company’s parking lot.
Walton said that Ford was “a little upset” but “didn’t display anything … outrageous” when a sheriff’s deputy served him the order at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at his workplace, Excel Industries in Hesston, Kansas.
“I saw the shooter get out of his truck, shoot someone down and go into the building”, Gerald said.
When a Kansas man went on a shooting rampage, most people ran in the other direction. “After he reloaded he went inside the lobby in front of the building and that is the last I seen him”.
A plant employee said, “It didn’t’ matter who it was”.
“We heard a pop, pop, and we thought it was just metal falling on the ground, and then the doors opened, people started screaming, coming out”, he said.
The dead were 30-year-old Renee Benjamin, whose hometown was unavailable; 44-year-old Brian Sadowsky of Newton; and 31-year-old Josh Higbee of Buhler.
The latest mass shooting to rock the United States unfolded Thursday at a lawn mower plant in a town north of Wichita, and ended when police shot dead the gunman identified as Cedric Larry Keith Ford, 38.
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Hopkins worked at Excel Industries for seven months, starting in September 2013, according to a resume she posted on the Internet, and she was engaged to marry Ford in May of previous year.
