Four people were killed
and 14 others injured in a series of shootings Thursday in Hesston, Kan.,
officials said. Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said at a news conference
Thursday night that four people were killed, including the gunman. at the Excel
Industries plant in Hesston. Walton said there were four diferent crime scenes
in the area, including the Excel plant where dispatchers earlier said they were
responding to a shooting. Law enforcement officers killed the gunman, who
worked at the plant, after he began shooting at them, Walton said. Before
driving to the plant, the man fired from his vehicle, the sheriff said.
"This is just a horrible incident," he said. "There's going to
be a lot of sad people before this is all over."
He added that the FBI
and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had been called in to assist. Officials
said six victims from the shooting were being treated at Via Chrisiti St.
Francis hospital in Wichita. Four patients are being treated at Newton Medical
Center, and four at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. Excel Industries
manufactures lawn care products, including riding lawnmowers, according to the
company website. Martin Espinoza, who works at Excel, was in the plant during
the shooting. He heard people yelling to others to get out of the building,
then heard popping, then saw the shooter, a co-worker he described as typically
pretty calm. Espinoza told The Associated Press the shooter pointed a gun at
him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. At that point, the shooter got
a different gun and Martin took off running.
I looked right at him
and he looked right at me, Espinoza said. Excel Industries was awarded the
Governor's Exporter of the Year award in 2013 from the Kansas Department of
Commerce. The company manufactures Hustler and Big Dog mowing equipment and was
founded in Hesston in 1960. Hesston is a community of about 3,700 residents
about 35 miles north of Wichita. The shooting comes less than a week after
authorities say a man opened fire at several locations in Kalamazoo, Michigan,
leaving six people dead and two severely wounded.
