BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A man wearing his work uniform started shooting at his former colleagues inside a UPS sorting facility in Alabama a day after he was fired from the company, killing a supervisor and another employee before committing suicide, police said Tuesday.
Neither the gunman nor his two victims have been named, and Lt. Sean Edwards said police were still trying to reach their families.
UPS spokesman Steve Gaut would not say what the shooter's job duties had been.
The UPS warehouse, a sand-colored building sitting on a hill with company logos on the front and side, is used to sort packages and send them out on trucks. About 80 drivers had already left on their routes, and a small number remained when the shooter drove up in a private vehicle Tuesday morning and walked inside through a truck dock door in the back of the building, Gaut said.
The building has a parking lot surrounded by barbed wire.
The man was wearing a UPS uniform and opened fire either in or near some offices inside the warehouse in an industrial area just north of the Birmingham airport, Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper told reporters.
The gunman had apparently shot himself by the time officers got inside the warehouse, Roper said. No one else was hurt.
"When these people came here to work, they had no idea this would be their last day on earth," Roper said.
Edwards said the shooter had been armed with a handgun.
Atlanta-based UPS said in a brief statement that the shooting happened around 9:40 a.m. CDT. The company added that it is fully cooperating with the investigation.
Employees who were at the warehouse when the shooting happened were being taken to another location so that they could be interviewed by investigators and provided with counseling, Roper said.
Late Tuesday morning, a long line of police cars with their lights flashing left the area as part of a motorcade with a white school bus. Also, a wrecker with a police escort left the scene towing a dark red Honda SUV.
Vonderrick Rogers lives on the same street as the UPS facility and said he drove past the building shortly after it happened. There were already 10 to 15 police officers on the scene with more arriving, he said.
"Cops were jittering and running around like they were ready to go grab somebody," he said.
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