6 dead, including gunman, in Molson Coors brewery shooting in Milwaukee
27 February, 2020
A gunman opened fire at the Molson Coors Beverage Co brewing complex in Milwaukee on Wednesday, killing five co-workers before he was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, the city's police chief said.
No-one else was injured in the violence at the sprawling campus greater than 20 buildings, where some 1,400 employees are employed by the beer company in Wisconsin's most significant city, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said.
The entire Molson Coors property was placed under a security lockdown for many hours following gunfire as police swept each building to eliminate any more threats or victims.
"We are able to now say that the scene is secure. All employees who were on scene have been allowed to go back home," Morales told reporters at a late-night news conference a long time following the afternoon shooting.
Morales said the bloodshed was confined to the Molson Coors complex west of downtown - a facility known to locals as the old Miller brewery - and that "no members of everyone were involved."
Miller beer is probably the company's leading brands, and Mayor Tom Barrett said the plant has been part of metropolis for 165 years.
Morales said your body of the dead gunman, who was simply thought to have acted alone, was within the same building as his five victims.
The suspect was described by police as a 51-year-old Milwaukee resident and employee of Molson Coors. Information regarding the circumstances of the shooting, including what may have precipitated the carnage, were not provided by authorities.
"We are a family at Molson Coors in Milwaukee, which can be an unthinkable tragedy for us," company President and CEO Gavin Hattersley told reporters.
President Donald Trump, acknowledging the shooting hours earlier as he opened a White House news conference about the coronavirus outbreak, described the gunman as a "wicked murderer" and called the gun violence "an awful thing."
"Our hearts venture out to the persons of Wisconsin and the families," he said.
At a news conference earlier in the evening, the mayor branded the shooting "an unspeakable tragedy."
"There were five people who visited work today exactly like everybody goes to work. They thought they were likely to work and return to their own families. They didn't, and tragically they never will."
In the immediate aftermath of the bloodshed, the business advised employees within an email that the gunman had been found in or near a second-floor stairwell near a packaging facility, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Hours later at Spitfires on State, a tavern a few blocks from the shooting scene, patrons made solemn toasts to Miller, an iconic Milwaukee brand. A small group of employees, still wearing their protective gear from their shift early in the day at the brewery, huddled together inside bar.
“Prayers and condolences,” one female employee said as she left the bar after hugging two co-workers.
The Milwaukee shooting seemed more likely to reignite a contentious debate about gun control amid the U.S. presidential election.
The campaign of Democratic applicant Michael Bloomberg, the former NEW YORK mayor, was set to host a roundtable discussion about gun violence at an event in Los Angeles on Thursday.
A campaign spokeswoman said the function, which Bloomberg had not been planning to attend, once was scheduled, but added,"recent events is going to be discussed."
This past year saw 417 mass shootings in the United States, in line with the Gun Violence Archive, the best annual number because the nonprofit research group started keeping a tally in 2013. GVA defines a mass shooting as any where at least four people, excluding the perpetrator, are shot.
Source: japantoday.com
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