A Kansas sheriff’s deputy served a man a “protection from abuse” order just 1½ hours before that man began opening fire – a flurry of bullets that ended with at least 14 wounded and three dead before the shooter was shot and killed. As news of the shooting poured forth, KWCH identified the gunman as 38-year-old Cedric Ford and reported that his “Facebook page says he was a painter at Excel”.
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The shooter killed three or four people, and wounded as many as 20 others, the sheriff said.
Ford was fatally shot by an officer during an exchange of gunfire. The shooter, a Harvey County resident, was armed with a long gun and a handgun, according to Walton.
Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said in a news briefing Friday that many more could have been victims had an officer not shot and killed Ford. Walton says, “There’s going to be a lot of sad people before this is over”.
The sheriff said a shooting also took place in the plant parking lot and two other locations nearby. He would not discuss the shooter’s motive but said “there was some things that triggered this individual”.
“I heard him yell something – that’s what got our attention – turned around, hopped out with an AK-47 – appeared like – and fired a few shots outside and then ducked down and went into the building”, the witness said.
Martin Espinoza was then confronted by Ford, a colleague he described as normally calm.
Espinoza said the shooter pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. Authorities said he killed three people and wounded 14…
Walton said the dead included the gunman, an employee at Excel Industries, located in a tight-knit community north of Wichita.
He told reporters that the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had been called in to assist. Hesston College, which is just west of the facility, and other area schools were put on lockdown after the shootings, but those lockdowns have since been lifted.
“I witnessed him shoot the shots”. Ford moved to Kansas from Broward County, Florida, to start a new life after several encounters with law enforcement.
The first responding officer traded fire with the gunman near the building’s paint room, striking him dead, Walton said. The attacker then got a different gun and Mr Espinoza ran away.
Authorities have not yet identified the gunman but said the person died in a confrontation with a law enforcement officer.
Excel Industries is a family-owned business that was founded in 1960, according to the Kansas City Star.
Authorities said they had four crime scenes to process Thursday night.
The escalating number of mass shootings in the United States has elevated gun control as a campaign issue in the November U.S. presidential election. The suspect was an employee at Excel Industries, a mowing equipment manufacturer.
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“This is just a terrible incident”.
