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Lockheed racist shooting spree { July 9 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usshot093364875jul09,0,630199.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlineshttp://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usshot093364875jul09,0,630199.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines
Factory Massacre
'Hothead' worker known as racist kills 5, self in Mississippi
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 9, 2003
Meridian, Miss. - A factory worker described as a racist "hothead" who talked about killing people opened fire with a shotgun at a Lockheed Martin plant yesterday, leaving five fellow employees dead before committing suicide.
Dozens of employees at the aircraft parts plant frantically ran for cover screaming, "Get out! Get out!" after assembly worker Doug Williams, dressed in a black T-shirt and camouflage pants, started firing during a morning break. The rampage occurred after Williams attended a meeting on workplace ethics.
Nine people were wounded, including one critically, in the nation's deadliest workplace shooting in 2 1/2 years.
"At first I thought it was something falling on the ground. Then I walked to the aisle and saw him aiming his gun. I took off. Everybody took off," said Booker Steverson, who was helping assemble airplane parts when he heard the first shot.
Exactly what set Williams off was not immediately clear, but co-workers said the 48-year-old assembler had had run-ins with management and several fellow employees.
"Mr. Williams was mad at the world. This man had an issue with everybody," said co-worker Hubert Threat. "It's not just about race. It was just the excuse he was looking for."
Williams was white and four of his victims were black; the fifth was white.
Sheriff Billy Sollie said it appeared Williams fired at random. "There was no indication it involved race or gender as far as his targets were concerned," Sollie said.
Several co-workers said they were not surprised when Williams was identified as the killer. "When I first heard about it, he was the first thing that came to my mind," said Jim Payton, who is retired from the plant but had worked with Williams for about a year.
Steverson said Williams was known as a racist who did not like blacks, and Payton said Williams had talked about wanting to kill people. "I'm capable of doing it," Payton quoted Williams as saying.
One of those killed was Lanette McCall, a black woman who had worked at the plant 15 years. Her husband, Bobby McCall, said she had expected Williams to harm someone someday.
"She said he made a threat against black people," a distraught McCall said. "Obviously, he was a sick guy. I wish somebody had given him some help before he done destroyed my life and my kids' life."
Russell Wright, who works at the plant but was not there yesterday, described Williams as "a hothead."
The sheriff said he had no information on whether the gunman had been in trouble with his bosses. He said Williams had attended a meeting yesterday morning with other employees, some of whom were later shot. "We are not sure if those killed were friend or foe," the sheriff said.
Authorities said Williams was carrying a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle when he entered the plant, but he apparently only used the 12-gauge shotgun. He also had three small-caliber guns in his truck.
Some of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.
The shooting stunned residents of Meridian, a city of 40,000 near the Alabama line whose economy is largely dependent on the military. It is home to the Lockheed plant, a naval air station and an Air National Guard training center. The Meridian plant employs about 150 people and builds parts for C-130J Hercules transport planes and vertical stabilizers for F-22 Raptor fighter jets.
"We know one another. Almost everyone knows someone who works in the building, or has a relative who works in the building," said Craig Hitt, president of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors.
Company president Dain Hancock called the shootings "a horrible tragedy, a senseless crime." "There are no words that can express the ... sorrow that has been felt by all of those who have been touched," Hancock said.
The dead were identified as McCall, 47, of Cuba, Ala.; Micky Fitzgerald, 45, of Little Rock, Miss.; Sam Cockrell, 46, of Meridian; Thomas Willis, 57, of Lisman, Ala.; and Charlie Miller, 58, of Meridian.
It was the nation's deadliest workplace shooting since a software tester in Wakefield, Mass., killed seven people the day after Christmas in 2000.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
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