Posted on 05/12/2005 9:59:36 AM PDT by WKB
Lauderdale County Sheriff Billie Sollie isn't convinced a 2003 shooting at Lockheed Martin's Meridian plant was racially motivated, despite an upcoming ABC report that says otherwise.
ABC's Prime Time Live, in a segment to be aired tonight, will quote from internal Lockheed memos that the network says detail threats Doug Williams made against his black co-workers more than a year and a half before he went on the shooting rampage that left six dead.
The broadcast will feature interviews of employees who say Williams made racial and violent threats against them.
The shooting happened July 8, 2003, at the plant that makes airplane components. Williams had left a diversity training class and returned with a 12-gauge shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle. He killed five and wounded eight other workers before taking his own life.
Four of those killed were black. Most of the wounded were white.
Sollie said Wednesday he told ABC special correspondent Bryan Ross he was aware of the internal documents where Williams reportedly used the n-word. But Sollie said that doesn't mean that Williams was a racist.
"In my opinion, he did not hate every one of a certain race, gender or religion," Sollie told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "One of the persons in the training room where the incident began was a black person and the shooter came to her and said, 'Don't worry, I'm not going to shoot you."'
Sollie said that information was confirmed by the woman, whom he did not name, and other witnesses in the room.
"But I bet it won't make it on Prime Time," he said.
In July 2004, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission described Williams as having created a "racially charged atmosphere" at the plant. The ABC report cites the same EEOC findings.
ABC said it has obtained documents that show Lynette McCall, a shooting victim, was one of seven employees who had told a Lockheed executive about Williams' death threats and slurs in December 2001.
Aaron Hopson, another Lockheed employee, told the network Williams said "One of these days I'm going to come in here and kill me a bunch of (n-word), and then I'm going to kill myself."
A federal lawsuit filed by 47 Lockheed Martin employees and relatives of employees alleges the company ignored the numerous complaints against Williams. Bobby McCall, Lynette McCall's husband, is a plaintiff, as well as others interviewed by the network.
Lockheed, the nation's largest defense contractor, has denied there was a connection between the shootings and Williams' views.
Prime Time Live can be seen at 9 p.m. on WAPT-Channel 16, the local ABC affiliate.
Mississippi ping
bttt
Thanks for posting this!
You might remember that I was there at this time.
I go with LE on this, and on anything else
that ABC decides to "report".
BTW, Billie Sollie is a good guy.
Well, I won't be watching.... I'd sure believe Sollie before ABC (or CBS, NBC, etc.)
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