Alabama gunman had hit list, say US officials
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AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 13, 2009 00:00
SAMSON, Alabama - An unemployed man, who killed 10 people in the worst shooting spree in the US state of Alabama before committing suicide, has left behind a revenge list, including a metals plant that compelled him to resign, say officials.
lists of employers and co-workers he believed had wronged him, authorities said. The lists found in Michael McLendon's home included a metals plant that had forced him to resign years ago and where he ended up killing himself Tuesday to end the rampage, District Attorney Gary McAliley said. Also on the list were a sausage factory from which he suddenly quit last week and a poultry plant that suspended his mother, McAliley said Wednesday.
The pages torn from a spiral notebook included names of co-workers who he felt had wronged him, including one who reported him for not wearing ear plugs, another who made him clean a meat grinder and a supervisor who didn't like the way he cut pork chops, McAliley said. "We found a list of people he worked with, people who had done him wrong," said McAliley in an interview outside the charred house.
Dispute with family
Investigators offered no immediate explanation for why McLendon targeted relatives and others who weren't on the list as he fired more than 200 rounds in a roughly 20-mile (30-kilometer) trail of carnage across two counties near the Florida state line. The district attorney said a piece of paper found in the house he shared with his mother also included the names of nine lawyers in the area. He said McLendon apparently wanted to hire a lawyer in a dispute with members of his family over getting a family Bible returned to him, but details weren't clear.
McLendon began his killing spree across three southern Alabama communities by burning down his home, and ended it by taking his own life at Reliable Metals, where he worked until 2003. McAliley said he believes McLendon had planned more violence at the Pilgrim Pride plant in Enterprise, where his mother worked, and the place he recently quit, Kelly Foods in Elba. McLendon's complete work history wasn't immediately known, but he left the metals plant in Geneva in 2003 and apparently worked at Pilgrim's Pride before joining the sausage factory in 2007.
Lt. Barry Tucker of Alabama Bureau of Investigations said at a news conference that McLendon was "somewhat depressed about job issues" but that investigators don't believe the shootings were job-related.
"There's no specific indication of 'This is why I did it,"' said Tucker who wouldn't release a motive. Federal court records show McLendon and his mother are among Pilgrim Pride employees who filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the Pittsburg, Texas-based poultry firm over claims of unfair compensation. A company spokesman did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. The district attorney said records found in the home indicate Lisa McLendon was accused of misstating her hours but was due to resume work March 17. The firm wouldn't comment on the reason she was suspended.
In the span of about an hour, McLendon, 28, set his home on fire, killed five relatives and five bystanders and committed suicide in a standoff at the plant. "The community's just in disbelief, just how this could happen in our small town," said state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, from the nearby town of Slocomb. "This was 20-something miles of terror." At a prayer service at First Baptist Church of Samson, Rev. Steve Sellers made no attempt to explain what would drive someone to commit such an act.
"Father, there are times in life when we don't have answers to the question why," he said to several hundred people in the church, where sobs could be heard. "I don't know what set a young man off like that, but I too want to pray for his family." It was not clear how long McLendon had been planning the attack, but authorities said he armed himself with four guns - two assault rifles with high-capacity magazines taped together, a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol - may have planned a bigger massacre than he had time to carry out.
The pages torn from a spiral notebook included names of co-workers who he felt had wronged him, including one who reported him for not wearing ear plugs, another who made him clean a meat grinder and a supervisor who didn't like the way he cut pork chops, McAliley said. "We found a list of people he worked with, people who had done him wrong," said McAliley in an interview outside the charred house.
Dispute with family
Investigators offered no immediate explanation for why McLendon targeted relatives and others who weren't on the list as he fired more than 200 rounds in a roughly 20-mile (30-kilometer) trail of carnage across two counties near the Florida state line. The district attorney said a piece of paper found in the house he shared with his mother also included the names of nine lawyers in the area. He said McLendon apparently wanted to hire a lawyer in a dispute with members of his family over getting a family Bible returned to him, but details weren't clear.
McLendon began his killing spree across three southern Alabama communities by burning down his home, and ended it by taking his own life at Reliable Metals, where he worked until 2003. McAliley said he believes McLendon had planned more violence at the Pilgrim Pride plant in Enterprise, where his mother worked, and the place he recently quit, Kelly Foods in Elba. McLendon's complete work history wasn't immediately known, but he left the metals plant in Geneva in 2003 and apparently worked at Pilgrim's Pride before joining the sausage factory in 2007.
Lt. Barry Tucker of Alabama Bureau of Investigations said at a news conference that McLendon was "somewhat depressed about job issues" but that investigators don't believe the shootings were job-related.
"There's no specific indication of 'This is why I did it,"' said Tucker who wouldn't release a motive. Federal court records show McLendon and his mother are among Pilgrim Pride employees who filed a lawsuit in 2006 against the Pittsburg, Texas-based poultry firm over claims of unfair compensation. A company spokesman did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. The district attorney said records found in the home indicate Lisa McLendon was accused of misstating her hours but was due to resume work March 17. The firm wouldn't comment on the reason she was suspended.
In the span of about an hour, McLendon, 28, set his home on fire, killed five relatives and five bystanders and committed suicide in a standoff at the plant. "The community's just in disbelief, just how this could happen in our small town," said state Sen. Harri Anne Smith, from the nearby town of Slocomb. "This was 20-something miles of terror." At a prayer service at First Baptist Church of Samson, Rev. Steve Sellers made no attempt to explain what would drive someone to commit such an act.
"Father, there are times in life when we don't have answers to the question why," he said to several hundred people in the church, where sobs could be heard. "I don't know what set a young man off like that, but I too want to pray for his family." It was not clear how long McLendon had been planning the attack, but authorities said he armed himself with four guns - two assault rifles with high-capacity magazines taped together, a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol - may have planned a bigger massacre than he had time to carry out.