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A disgruntled worker at a meatpacking plant killed four fellow employees and wounded three others Friday afternoon before committing suicide, police said.
Another employee said the gunman appeared to have targeted particular workers at the ConAgra Foods Inc. plant during the 10-minute rampage, which coincided with the plant's 5 p.m. shift break.
Andre Porter said he heard the gunman tell some people in the cafeteria, "You haven't done anything to me, so you can go."
Deputy police chief Col. Sam Breshears said witnesses told police told gunman was a disgruntled plant employee. Porter said the gunman had a conflict with some co-workers earlier in the week, but didn't describe the conflict.
Police did not immediately release the names of the gunman or the victims.
Breshears said when officers arrived the gunman was still moving through the building, but did not provide details about the circumstances under which the shooter committed suicide.
The three men wounded were being treated at The University of Kansas Hospital, spokesman Bob Hallinan said. One was in critical condition late Friday night, one was in serious condition and one was in fair condition, he said.
Breshears would not say where the shootings occurred, but Porter said the gunman started near the men's locker room, then continued the shooting spree in the cafeteria.
Porter, 38, of Atchison, said he was in the men's locker room when he heard what he later realized were gunshots. He saw the gunman — without seeing his weapon — and asked, "What are you doing ... shooting fireworks?"
Porter said the gunman — whom he knew only as Elijah — slowed down to acknowledge him, then took off running. That's when Porter saw the weapon, which he described as a handgun.
Then Porter saw a co-worker who had been shot lying near the doorway to the locker room. Porter started walking toward the cafeteria, where he heard 10 to 12 rapid-fire shots.
Porter said he ran to the women's locker room and told everyone to stay there, and told other people he saw wandering around to get out of the building.
Asked why he wasn't shot, Porter said of the gunman, "He was always friendly to me and I was always friendly to him."
Police said two of the men killed were 45 years old, one was 21 and two others had yet to be identified. The critically injured victim was 55, and the other wounded men were 44 and 60, Breshears said.
Many employees had been kept at the plant for hours for interviews with police while friends and family gathered outside, waiting for word.
"Everybody out here is trying to find out if their loved one is a victim or a survivor," said Robert Thompson, whose wife was inside when the shooting took place. Thompson later learned his wife was OK.
The ConAgra plant is located in an industrial section of the city, about four miles southwest of downtown Kansas City, Mo. Workers there process and slice meat for deli and sandwich products, company spokesman Bob McKeon said.
ConAgra is working with police in the investigation, but had no other details, McKeon said in a telephone interview from Omaha, Neb., where the company is headquartered.
"Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families of the employees who have been involved in this tragedy," McKeon said.
The shooting came a year and a day after an employee of a manufacturing plant in Jefferson City, Mo., shot eight people, three fatally, before killing himself in front of the city's police headquarters.
(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2004)
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