Pre Employment Screening Articles

By BILL DRAPER
Associated Press Writer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A sixth person shot in a rampage at a meatpacking plant died Saturday, and investigators said they still have not determined the gunman’s motive.

Authorities identified the shooter as Elijah Brown, 21, of Kansas City, Kan., who was hired at the ConAgra Foods Inc. plant in September 2003, laid off because of production downturns, and then called back to work a few months ago.

Five people died at the plant Friday, including Brown, who killed himself. The sixth died overnight at a Kansas City, Kan., hospital, police said.

Police Chief Ron Miller identified the victims as Lonnie Ellingburg, 46; Travis Nelson, 23; and Leonardo Rodriguez, 49, all of Kansas City, Kan.; Ardell L. Edwards, 55, of Grandview, Mo., the worker who died overnight; and a Mexican national who was not identified.

Two workers were wounded. Miller identified them as Juan Ramirez, 44, of Kansas City, Kan.; and Victor Coggs, whose age and hometown were not immediately available.

The ConAgra Foods Inc. workers were on break at 5 p.m. Friday when the 10-minute rampage began. More than one weapon was used, Deputy Police Chief Sam Breshears said.

Plant employee Andre Porter, who encountered the gunman right after hearing the first shot, said the shooter had a conflict with some of the workers earlier in the week, but did not describe the conflict.

Porter, 38, said he was in the men’s locker room when he heard a shot. He said he then saw the shooter and asked, “What are you doing … shooting fireworks?”

He said the gunman glanced at him, then sprinted out of the locker room. Porter said that’s when he noticed the man was carrying a handgun and saw a co-worker lying motionless in the hallway. Shortly after, he heard 10 to 12 shots fired rapidly in the nearby cafeteria.

Porter said he alerted other workers to stay put or get out of the building.

Employees were kept at the plant for hours for interviews with police while friends and family gathered outside, waiting for word.

“Everybody out here is trying to find out if their loved one is a victim or a survivor,” said Robert Thompson, whose wife was inside when the shooting took place. Thompson later learned his wife was OK.

The ConAgra plant is in an industrial section of the city, about four miles southwest of downtown Kansas City, Mo. Workers there process and slice meat for deli and sandwich products, company spokesman Bob McKeon said.

ConAgra is working with police in the investigation, but had no other details, McKeon said in a telephone interview from Omaha, Neb., where the company has headquarters.

The plant, which operates 24 hours a day, was to remain closed indefinitely while the shooting was being investigated, she said.

The shooting came a year and a day after an employee of a manufacturing plant in Jefferson City, Mo., shot eight people, three fatally, before killing himself in front of the city’s police headquarters.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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By Jeremy Hudson
jehudson@clarionledger.com

Employees fled the Lockheed Martin plant near Meridian when a co-worker shot 14 people last July, but were forced to view the carnage when management ordered them back inside for a “live head count” moments after the shooting, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

Forty-seven employees and relatives of employees joined in the suit, which claimed they suffered emotional distress from being subjected to the bodies of their co-workers. Plant employee Doug Williams, 48, shot and killed six co-workers and wounded eight others before committing suicide at the plant on July 8, 2003, officials said. It was the state’s deadliest act of workplace violence

“When Lockheed ordered everyone to the canteen area, I twice had to try to find a way that did not have a body lying in the aisle,” Cathy Mumford, a six-year Lockheed employee said in a court affidavit.
The lawsuit, which is one side of a legal argument, also claims Lockheed failed to protect its employees by ignoring numerous complaints that Williams threatened to shoot black co-workers. It also claims Lockheed fostered a volatile work environment and denied employee requests for security guards before the shooting.

Two other lawsuits also were filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Jackson against Lockheed Martin.

Shirley Price, Williams’ girlfriend and 23-year Lockheed employee, filed a suit claiming she was wrongfully fired from her job at the plant because of the relationship she had with Williams.

Billy Eugene Bradley, a 20-year Lockheed employee, and his wife, Mary Jane Bradley, filed the other lawsuit, claiming Lockheed failed to address his concerns about Williams making threats against Billy Bradley for befriending black co-workers. He also claims in the lawsuit he was wrongfully fired from the company after the shootings.

“Lockheed would only mock Bradley and called him crazy and berated him for being too emotional,” according to a court affidavit. “And they never did anything to stop Williams’ harassment.”

Each plaintiff is represented by Meridian attorney Bill Ready and the Pritchard Law Firm in Pascagoula. Each of the lawsuits seeks unspecified damages. Ready could not be reached Friday.

“The shooting at the Meridian facility was a senseless tragedy to all who were affected by it, including the victims, their families, the community and all the hard working men and women at Lockheed Martin who, like the families, still mourn the loss of their colleagues,” Lockheed Martin spokesman Joe Stout said in a prepared statement. “Lockheed Martin has been cleared of responsibility for this incident by state and federal authorities and is confident that the same conclusion will be reached by the court. Out of respect for the victims, their families, our employees and the judicial system, we will have no further public comment on the litigation.”

Christal Bailey, the lead plaintiff in the multi-party suit, is the only person involved in either suit because of a relative’s death. Her mother, Delois Bailey, was shot in the pelvis and died one week after the shooting.

“When my mother and I talked, she often said she felt she was subjected to a series of related acts which created and maintained a threatening, violent and hostile work environment,” Bailey said in an affidavit. “She would talk about the deliberate indifference Lockheed created and that they maintained a hostile environment.”

Henry Odom, a 35-year Lockheed employee who joined in the multi-party suit, said in a court affidavit he had complained to management about fights and auto thefts at the plant for years and asked for security guards at the plant.

“Lockheed always replied to such requests by refusing with indication that it had more important things to worry about than security,” Odom said in the court papers.

He was shot by Williams in his left arm twice, with the second shot piercing his back and puncturing a lung, his affidavit reads. The company now has armed security guards on duty, the papers said. Had the guards been present on the day of the shooting, lives could have been saved, the papers said.

About three weeks before the shooting, Williams placed a work-issued “bootie” on his head that, to some, looked like a hood worn by a Ku Klux Klan, the lawsuit said. He was confronted by plant management, but left the plant angry and did not return for about a week, the lawsuit said.

He was allowed to return to work, but was ordered to attend an ethics course with black co-workers. At the meeting, he was seated next to Sam Cockrell, whom Williams thought filed the complaint about the “bootie” situation, the lawsuit said. Williams left that meeting, told other workers he was angered and was going to “take care of this” himself, according to the court papers.

He returned to the meeting room, fired upon some in the room and then moved to the plant floor where others were killed.

“Williams made such specific and unequivocal threats and promises to supervisory and other personnel of Lockheed that Lockheed had sufficient time to both stop him before he entered the premises with loaded firearms and/or to warn plaintiffs and other employees of the imminent danger he posed,” the lawsuit reads.

“Additionally, Lockheed management were told, but ignored, that Williams was headed toward the plant with guns,” the papers read.

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By SARANA SCHELL
Anchorage Daily News

Alyssa Gorham and her former employer Vicki Malone agree: Gorham was a dynamite employee at a busy Alaska tour company.

But the two have totally different perspectives on Gorham suddenly quitting the job she loved.

Gorham was hiding the fact that she was in a violent relationship, and finally, she said, could no longer stand the dual pressures of a controlling partner and increasing responsibility at work. Malone said she had no idea what was happening and suddenly found herself without a key employee.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao called attention to the plight of women like Gorham when she spoke Wednesday at the opening of the Alaska Summit on Violence Against Women, a three-day conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice. She highlighted federal programs to help domestic-violence victims get jobs and employers create safer workplaces. “Prevention is absolutely essential,” Chao said. Anchorage has seen several assaults at work by estranged partners in the last 15 years, Anita Shell of the Anchorage Police Department said, including an insurance agent shot and killed at work and a UAA employee shot and wounded in a campus parking lot.

These cases are rare, but employers can take steps to support employees that would also benefit co-workers and fulfill a legal obligation to provide a safe workplace, Shell said.

A supportive environment can help employees feel comfortable asking for help too, Gorham said.

“You don’t want people who respect you and rely on you to lose that respect,” said Gorham, who said she was making $45,000 as a 22-year-old.

Malone, who said she had no idea what Gorham was going through, agreed that can be a concern. But, she said, most employers would bend over backwards to help a valued employee.

“She was definitely moving up the ladder here at the office,” Malone said.

Most often, domestic violence shows up at work as harassment, according to state statistics and local agencies.

“I know of lots of women who say, ‘I lost my job because he called me all the time there,’ ” said Suzi Pearson of the Anchorage women’s shelter AWAIC, which offers presentations for employers on domestic violence and workplace safety.

Victims typically can change their phone numbers and addresses, the APD’s Shell said. But they can’t change their job and so can be found there.

But employers can take some basic steps to get women back to work, said Shannon Wadsworth, community educator at AWAIC. For instance, they can change a worker’s phone number, work location or hours to thwart harassers, she said.

The University of Alaska Anchorage encourages employees to walk together to cars if they work late or call for a security escort, spokeswoman Lori Keim said. Receptionists are trained in how to deal with anyone who is belligerent or threatening, and new hires are given a code to signal a need to call police.

Receptionists can keep a photo of anyone who should not be allowed in, Shell said.

Employment lawyer Helena Hall said employers have options. They could put employees on administrative leave during a difficult period, hire extra security or take advantage of Alaska’s anti-stalking law to get help from police. Hall also recommended employees get restraining orders as another protective tool.

Gorham said her situation changed when she landed in the hospital and a doctor refused to release her unless she got a restraining order.

When Gorham interviewed for new jobs after several months of full-time court battles, she said she felt awkward mentioning her situation, but it was worth it. She asked her new employer for some protective measures and got them.

“They’ve been very protective of me, and just the peace of mind is a tremendous benefit,” she said.

Still, she misses her old job. Gorham said she now makes $18,000 a year working part-time in administration.

Gorham encouraged co-workers and managers to speak out if they see harassing behavior. Her former co-workers took the attitude that her partner was a jerk, she said, but didn’t say or do anything.

“They didn’t intervene,” Gorham said, when they could have taken a stance of no tolerance for any kind of abuse at work by anyone.

“When people don’t speak out,” Gorham said, “it allows the problem to grow.”

Malone said if Gorham’s performance had wavered, that would have been reason to speak to her.

“But there’s also a line of privacy,” Malone said. “When they’re doing a dynamite job and seem happy and friendly,” she said, it’s hard to intervene. “I wish Alyssa would’ve come to me and asked me for help.”

Gorham said she couldn’t have.

“I wasn’t strong enough to bring it up at that point,” Gorham said. “I will speak out now so an employer won’t have to feel bad or uncomfortable to confront an employee and say, ‘Hey, do you need help?’ ”

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