At least 3 people have been killed and more than a dozen others have been injured, many of them critically, after a gunman in Kansas went on a shooting spree before opening fire at his workplace, officials say. The shooter was shot dead by a responding police officer.
The shooting spree began on late Thursday afternoon when a man was shot while driving a truck in Newton, which was followed by a shooting at a car near Hesston. A second person was shot in the parking lot of Excel Industries in Hesston, after which the gunman entered the workplace and opened fire.
Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said the gunman, who worked at the turf care product manufacturer on South Ridge Road, was shot dead in an exchange of gunfire with a police officer who was first to arrive at the scene. He called the officer a “hero”, saying many lives had been saved.
In total, four people were killed in the shooting spree, including the shooter, and 14 others were injured, including 10 people who remained in a critical condition on late Thursday night. All but two of the injured were shot at the factory.
The motive for the shooting rampage was not immediately known, but Walton said the incident is not believed to be related to terrorism. He said the gunman, identified by local media as Cedric Ford, was scheduled to work at the plant when he opened fire.
The workplace is about 30 miles northwest of Wichita, or 166 miles southeast of Kansas City. Hesston College, which is just west of the facility, and other area schools were put on lockdown after the shootings, but those lockdowns have since been lifted.
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