A gunman on Wednesday killed five coworkers at one of the best-known breweries in the US before turning the weapon on himself in the latest burst of mass gun violence in the nation.
More than 1,000 employees were at the Molson Coors brewing complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when the early-afternoon tragedy occurred, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales told reporters.
He said officers found the suspect, a 51-year-old local man, dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Morales later said the suspect was a Molson Coors employee.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said five other people, all workers at the facility, had been killed.
“They thought they were gonna go to work, finish their day, and return to their families,” Barrett said at a news conference.
US President Donald Trump earlier gave the first official word of the toll.
“A wicked murderer opened fire at a Molson Coors brewing company plant, taking the lives of five people, a number of people wounded, some badly wounded,” Trump said at a news conference at the White House.
US media, including ABC News and the local Fox affiliate, reported that the shooter had been fired earlier in the day from the beer giant, which owns the Coors and Miller brands.
The local CBS affiliate said that the shooter appeared to have stolen the name tag of another employee, then returned to the office complex with a gun, but the New York Times quoted US Representative Gwen Moore, whose district includes Milwaukee, as saying the gunman was an employee who was in uniform.
Molson Coors, a Canadian-American company, said it was cooperating with the police department.
“Our top priority is our employees,” it said.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted the husband of a brewery employee, Lasonya Ragdales, as saying that she was informed by the company of an active shooter on the premises, and was sending him text messages while locked in a room with coworkers.
“We are a family here at Molson Coors in Milwaukee, and this is an unthinkable tragedy for us,” company president and chief executive Gavin Hattersley said at a news conference.
The scene of the shooting is known locally as the “old Miller” brewing company, Morales said, and has been around for 165 years, Barrett added.
Democrats, who control the US House of Representatives, have made gun control one of their priorities, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he would only bring a gun bill to the floor if it has presidential backing, but Trump has given no clear preference.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered condolences to the Milwaukee victims and called out McConnell.
“The American people are tired of leader McConnell’s deadly obstruction,” Pelosi said. “House Democrats will continue to join them to advance a drumbeat of action across the country until McConnell takes up these critical bills and we end the gun violence epidemic once and for all.”
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