Posted on 08/04/2010 10:30:18 AM PDT by mlizzy
MANCHESTER, Conn. — Omar Thornton sat calmly in a meeting with union representative and his supervisors as they showed a video of him stealing beer from the distributor where he worked.
Busted, he didn't put up a fight, company officials said. He quietly signed a letter of resignation and was headed for the door when he pulled out a gun and started firing — "cold as ice," as one survivor described it.
In the end, Thornton killed eight people and wounded two, then turned the gun on himself in a rampage Tuesday at Hartford Distributors where at least some of the victims — executives and managers — may have been targeted, police said Wednesday.
Union and company officials said they would not have anticipated such violence from someone with no history of complaints or disciplinary problems. But authorities found two 9 mm handguns at the scene, and a shotgun in Thornton's car.
Relatives say Thornton, 34, finally cracked after suffering racial harassment in a company where he said he was singled out for being black in a predominantly white work force.
"Everybody's got a breaking point," said Joanne Hannah, the mother of Thornton's longtime girlfriend.
After shooting his co-workers, Thornton hid as police moved in. He called his mother, who tried for 10 minutes to talk him out of killing himself, his uncle Will Holliday told reporters.
"He said, 'I killed the five racists that was there that was bothering me,'" Holliday said. "He said, 'The cops are going to come in so I am going to take care of myself.'"
Reuters: Nine Dead in Connecticut Shooting
Authorities said they found him dead.
Thornton had said he found a picture of a noose and a racial epithet written on a bathroom wall, said Hannah, of Enfield, whose daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for the past eight years. Her daughter told her that Thornton's supervisors said they would talk to his co-workers.
Brett Hollander, whose family owns the distributor, denied any racial bias. And a union official said Thornton had not filed a complaint of racism with the union or any government agency.
"I can assure you there has never been any racial discrimination at our company," Hollander said.
Teamsters official Christopher Roos said, "This is a disgruntled employee who shot a bunch of people."
Company vice president Steve Hollander told The Associated Press he was stunned by Thornton's rampage after a meeting in which he calmly agreed to resign instead of being fired:
"He was cool and calm. He didn't yell. He was cold as ice. He didn't protest when we were meeting with him to show him the video of him stealing. He didn't contest it. He didn't complain. He didn't argue. He didn't admit or deny anything. He just agreed to resign. And then he just unexplainably pulled out his gun and started blasting."
Steve Hollander said he thinks Thornton had guns stashed in his lunch box. The executive said two people standing near him were fatally shot in the head, but he was only grazed in the jaw and the arm.
"He shot at me twice and hit me a couple times," he said. "By just the grace of God, I don't know how he missed (killing) me."
About 50 to 70 people were in the Hartford Distributors warehouse about 10 miles east of Hartford during a shift change when the gunman opened fire, said Brett Hollander, Steve Hollander's cousin.
"I was on the phone with 911 and then I saw him running outside of my office window, shooting his gun, carrying his lunch box, which must have had his weapons in it," Steve Hollander said. "It doesn't seem real to me now."
The shooting was over in minutes. The victims were found all over the complex.
Workers flooded out of the building as police officers raced into it, Manchester police Chief Marc Montminy told the town's board of directors Tuesday evening.
"Some were hiding in the woods and some were hiding under cars," he said.
State police found weapons in the suspect's car, Montminy said, without providing details.
Thornton was not a problem employee and had not had any previous disciplinary issues, said Gregg Adler, a lawyer for the Teamsters Local 1035. He said he was not aware of how much beer Thornton was accused of stealing.
Kristi Hannah had been with him Monday night and had no indication he was planning anything violent, her mother said.
Joanne Hannah described Thornton as an easygoing guy who liked to play sports and video games. She said he had a pistol permit and planned to teach her daughter how to use a gun.
Police declined to release the names of those killed.
Among the dead was Bryan Cirigliano, 51, of Newington, president of Teamsters 1035, according to the union. He had been Thornton's representative at Tuesday's disciplinary hearing, the union said.
Another victim was Doug Scruton, 56, who had worked at the warehouse for nearly 30 years, said his wife, Mikal O'Brien. Anticipating his upcoming retirement, the couple had recently moved to Middleton, N.H., where he loved to visit the White Mountains and beaches. He stayed with a friend in Connecticut during the week.
"It was part of our plan for him to be able to retire in the place that he loved. But he's never going to be able to enjoy that now," she said. "He was just the sweetest, gentlest, kind soul."
Bill Ackerman, a 51-year-old warehouseman, also was killed, said his girlfriend, Stephanie Laurin.
"I was like, 'Where's Billy, where's Billy?' and they said they hadn't seen him. And then one of his co-workers told me ... that he saw the shooter go to where Billy's room is that he works in," she said.
Ackerman, who enjoyed playing golf and rooting for the Boston Red Sox, had worked for the company for about 20 years, she said.
Manchester police identified the other victims as Francis Fazio Jr., 57; Edwin Kennison, 49; Craig Pepin, 60; Louis Felder Jr., 50; Victor James, 61.
Steve Hollander was treated at Hartford Hospital and released. Jerome Rosenstein, 77, was in serious condition there Wednesday.
It was the nation's deadliest shooting since 13 people were killed at Fort Hood, Texas, in November. A military psychiatrist is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in that case.
In Connecticut, a state lottery worker in Newington gunned down four supervisors in 1998 before committing suicide, and six people were killed in 1974 in botched robbery at a bakery in New Britain. Two men were convicted in that shooting.
Hartford Distributors has never had any complaints filed against it, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities said.
The Hollander family is widely respected in Manchester, said state Rep. Ryan Barry, a lifelong resident. He said the family-owned Hartford Distributors sponsors local sports teams.
"Ten seconds before he started shooting, if you had asked me, does he look like he's going to react in any way? I would have said no, he seems calm," Steve Hollander said. "It makes no sense the people he killed. Why would somebody do such a thing? They were his co-workers. They never ... harmed him in any way."
I’m wondering how much he was stealing. There really is a difference between grabbing a beer or two on on occasion and using a hand truck to get enough to fill your car. Heck, it is even possible he was set up. Theoretically.
IOW, I’m sure there really IS more to the story here, but I don’t know what it is - and it did not justify murdering people.
These people (leftists/entitled ones) imagine they see nooses and swastikas everywhere they go, yet they can never produce any evidence.
With as many blacks as I lately see with chips on their shoulders toward whites, many in the Phoenix area last weekend, is it time to start being afraid of being alone with them??? Their leader is telling them it’s ok to blame “whitey” and that they’ll be cleared of any wrong-doing, since all whites are racist anyway.
These are horrible times, sickening.
How many of the 8 victims were Black?
Actually, here in Seattle, about 20 years ago, a middle aged Boeing engineer got himself a mail order bride from Asia. She got pregnant and immediately sued for divorce. His friends described him as a nice and quiet guy.
He went into the King county superior court coutroom. There, at the other side of the room were his wife and her “handler” from the “asian community”.
He pulled out a gun, shot them both dead, and set the gun down on the table and gave himself up.
People really CAN be pushed passed the breaking point. Humans are potentially the most dangerous animal on the planet. One pushes them at their own peril.
If he was stealing from the company, it casts sound doubt on his claims of racism. He was probably just one of the types who have an entitlement mentality. Any criticism was perceived as racially motivated, even being busted may have been perceieved as racially motivated. Might also have been paranoid.
Another Cracker hater.
Wait. This supposedly happened in the “tolerant” Northeast. I thought all the racists were in the South and the West.
Plus, this is the Northeast with all those gun laws. How did this happen when there supposedly aren’t any guns?
I’m sorry. This just has to be about something else. < /sarc >
The security cameras that caught him stealing are racist, they probably have been doctored to only film blacks.
This is typical “circle the wagons” behavior in a Union shop.
I lived in Michigan when there was a shooting at the Royal Oak Post Office. Within hours the airwaves were filled with other Union members taking to the microphones to say that the murdered supervisor was a sonofabitch and deserved to die.
Someone is acting stupidly...
That description was of one of the VICTIMS, the man who was retiring, and had moved to NH, but was in CT for that week. Wrong place, wrong time.
People really CAN be pushed passed the breaking point. Humans are potentially the most dangerous animal on the planet. One pushes them at their own peril.I agree with you on this. And I think this is where strong [Christian] family involvement is mandatory. IMO parents have to always be thinking of and reading their children and intervene (regarding their emotional and physical health) no matter what age or stage they are at. And then, of course, when the parents get too old, the roles should then reverse.
Brett Hollander, whose family owns the distributor, denied any racial bias. And a union official said Thornton had not filed a complaint of racism with the union or any government agency.
There was no racial harassment, he was a thief who got caught.
OK, I didn’t read the whole article, but has there been any independent assertion to the racism charge.
Seems there is no direct charge from murderer, only third party assertions of survivors without the benefit of murderers income.
Wonder where he came up with that excuse.....
Wonder where he came up with that excuse.....I sincerely hope this crime has nothing to do with our administration's views on racism in this country ... but it crossed my mind as well ...
I strongly agree. BTW, I noticed in your quote of me that I said “passed” when I meant “past”. I used to think people were dumb when they typed “to” instead of “too”. Then I caught myself doing it a couple of times and realized what was going on. ;)
I strongly agree. BTW, I noticed in your quote of me that I said “passed” when I meant “past”. I used to think people were dumb when they typed “to” instead of “too”. Then I caught myself doing it a couple of times and realized what was going on. ;)*smiles* I didn't even notice it because I just dialed up this link yesterday. I can't get past how much I try to pass on using the words past or passed. So, yesterday, I just passed on the whole affair and used another word.
That the gunman justifies his actions by calling his victims racist could be viewed as an unintentionally-candid glimpse into minority culture.
Yes, I read that. But, I find it interesting that one of the first victims was the union representative that accompanied him to the meeting.
I'm not pretending that he was acting rationally, but perhaps he did complain to the union representative and it was buried/ignored?
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