Police responded to the scene at about 4:15 p.m.
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“I don’t think you ever want to think this will occur in your community”, McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy said at a news conference. “Anxious for other families”, she said. They identified the victims as James Zotter, 44, and Sandra Cooley, 68, both of Athens.
The shooter has been identified at 45-year-old Ricky Swafford, also of Athens.
All three were Athens residents. He got angry after a conversation with Zotter and Cooley, his supervisors.
Swafford abruptly left the meeting, and the building, before returning to the plant to find the two supervisors. It includes J.C. Penney, TJ Maxx, and Macy’s stores, among other shops, restaurants, and a movie theater. A steel manufacturing organization, the factory reportedly does not have its own security on-site. No one else was injured. The suspected shooter was found dead in a bathroom, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Under a state law enacted in 2013, workers with carry permits are allowed to store firearms in vehicles parked at work regardless of their employers’ wishes.
Thomas & Betts employs between 330 and 350 people, according to a spokesperson with ABB, which is the parent company of Thomas & Betts.
Niland said Friday Swafford does not have a criminal history in Tennessee. She could not confirm whether he had retrieved the gun from his auto.
Athens is about 50 miles southwest of Knoxville, near the state’s borders with Georgia and North Carolina.
Thomas & Betts is headquarters in suburban Memphis. They met a flood of Thomas & Betts employees “streaming out of the plant from all of the exits”, the chief said.
“We we lost colleagues in a senseless act of violence”.
“We ask for your understanding and prayers”, he said.
“We mourn as a community and a community of coworkers”, Joyce said.
The TBI’s Violent Crimes Response Team with special agent forensic scientists from Nashville arrived at the location Thursday evening to collect evidence, and have been processing the scene through the night.
Joyce said officials and workers with the company are “heartbroken” over the shootings.
There were no injuries, Ziegler said.
TBI said Swafford was an employee at the plant.
“A couple people went across the road into the trees to hide”, he said. “They’re thinking about the victims’ families and the shooter’s family”.
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“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families during this hard time”, the statement said.
