Hesston, KS, (AP) Four people are dead and several are injured following a series of shootings in south-central Kansas.
A gunman armed with an “assault-style” weapon drove through a south-central Kansas town Thursday, taking shots at people, before storming the factory where he worked. Authorities said he killed three people and wounded 14 before being shot dead by an officer.
Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said all the dead were shot inside Excel Industries, a plant in Hesston that makes lawn mower products. He said of those hurt, 10 were critically wounded.
A law enforcement officer killed the gunman after he began shooting at police, Walton said.
The shootings began about 5 p.m. when the gunman was in a car and shot a man on the street, wounding him in the shoulder. A short time later, another person was shot in the leg at an intersection.
“The shooter proceeded north to Excel Industries in Hesston, where one person was shot in the parking lot before he opened fire inside the building,” the department said in a release. “He was seen entering the building with an assault-style long gun.”
A Hesston officer responding to the scene exchanged fire with the shooter, who was killed. The officer who killed the shooter was not injured.
Walton said about 150 people were likely in the plant at the time of the shooting, and that the law enforcement officer who killed the suspect “saved multiple, multiple lives.” He said the gunman also had a pistol.
The officer who killed the man is “a hero as far as I’m concerned,” Walton said.
Erin McDaniel, spokeswoman for the nearby city of Newton, said the suspect was known to local authorities. She wouldn’t elaborate.
The shooting comes less than a week after authorities say a man opened fire at several locations in the Kalamazoo, Michigan, area leaving six people dead and two severely wounded.
