| Lockheed Martin shooting | |
|---|---|
Doug Williams, perpetrator of the shooting |
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| Location | Meridian, Mississippi, United States |
| Date | July 8, 2003 9:30 a.m. – 9:40 a.m. |
| Attack type | Mass murder, murder-suicide, massacre |
| Weapon(s) | Winchester 12 gauge shotgun |
| Deaths | 7 (including the perpetrator) |
| Injured | 8 |
| Perpetrator | Douglas Williams |
The Lockheed Martin shooting was an act of mass murder that occurred on July 8, 2003 at the Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Mississippi, United States. The gunman, 48-year-old Douglas Williams, an assembly line worker at the plant shot 14 of his co-workers with a shotgun, killing six of them, before committing suicide. Eight of his victims, and five of those killed, were black.
It was the deadliest workplace shooting in the United States since December 2000, when Michael McDermott killed seven co-workers at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, Massachusetts.[1][2]
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On the day of the shooting Williams had to attend a mandatory ethics and diversity class together with 13 others, among them several black employees. According to some colleagues Williams arrived at the plant in a very agitated state and made threats to kill black workers, though others who had talked to him prior to the shooting stated that he “gave no indications that anything was wrong."[3] At the meeting Williams stayed only for a few minutes. After having a normal conversation with his colleague Al Collier, who described it as a "friendly little talk",[4] he suddenly stormed out of the room with the words “Y’all can handle this.”[3] Telling his supervisor, Jeff McWilliams, that he would take the matters into his own hands Williams went to retrieve several guns from his pick-up truck. Armed with a Winchester shotgun, a Ruger Mini 14 on his back, bandoliers with ammunition draped across his chest and a bandana on his head he returned to the annex, where the meeting was held.
At approximately 9:30 a.m. Williams entered the room, yelling "I told y’all to stop (expletive) with me! Didn’t I tell y’all not to (expletive) with me?",[3] and began shooting. He first killed Mickey Fitzgerald, a white employee, who tried to calm him down, with a shot in the face, before turning his attention towards a group of four black workers cowering on the floor. Remarking "There's four right there." Williams killed Sam Cockrell, whom he believed to have made complaints about him to the management, wounded Al Collier, who was shot in the back and right hand, as well as Charles Scott, and fatally wounded DeLois Bailey, when she was trying to run out of the room. Steve Cobb, the plant manager, as well as Brad Bynum, Chuck McReynolds and Brenda Dubose, whose head and hand were grazed by bullet fragments, were also wounded by ricochet. Williams then went out of the room, but returned after a short while and, searching and calling for Jack Johns, the production manager, he continued shooting.
Williams eventually left the annex and headed for the main factory, searching for other employees who had reported him to the management for making racist threats. There he was apprehended by his colleague Pete Threatt, who tried to take away his gun, but Williams pushed him out of the way, lowered the shotgun with the words "Get out of my way or I’ll kill you, too."[3] and moved on. While Threatt tried to make the others aware of the gunman, screaming for people to take cover, Williams walked through the plant and shot five other people, most of them at point blank range. He killed Charles J. Miller, Thomas Willis and Lynette McCall at their work stations and wounded Henry Odom and Randy Wright, before his girlfriend and co-worker, Shirley J. Price, began pleading with him to stop shooting. Williams then committed suicide in front of her by shooting himself in the torso, thus ending his rampage which had lasted approximately ten minutes.[5][6][7][3][4]
Three more weapons were later found by police in his car, a .22 Magnum Derringer, a .45-caliber Ruger pistol and a .22-caliber rifle with a scope.[6]
Six people were killed in the shooting.[8]
The injured were: Brad Bynum, 29, Steve Cobb, 46, Al Collier, 49, Brenda Dubose, 55, Chuck McReynolds, 62, Henry Odom, 57, Charles Scott, 65 and Randy Wright, 55.