Kansas town grieves shooting with ‘Hesston Hustler Strong’

Walton did not cite the motive for the shooting, although he said “there were some things that triggered this incident”.

“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 police department said in a release.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said preliminary information indicated that the officer was Hesston Police Chief Doug Schroeder, who did not wait for backup and “seized the situation”.

An undated handout booking photo provided by the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office shows Cedric Ford, accused of killing at least three people and wounding 14 in a shooting spree February 25, 2016.

Walton said his office served the suspect with the protection-from-abuse order at around 3:30 p.m., about 90 minutes before the first shooting happened.

Hopkins was charged with one count of knowingly transferring a firearm to a convicted felon. Inside, three plant employees were killed.

“At Excel, we are like a family”, said Rick Lett, a friend since high school of one of the dead, 44-year-old Brian Sadowsky. 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. He also was arrested in July 2010, for driving while intoxicated and obstruction. Hopkins is not the woman who asked law enforcement to serve the protective order, however.

The Excel Industries factory nestled in the center of this peaceful community of 3,700 founded by Mennonite farmers has always been more than an economic hub.

The gunman, who has not yet been identified by police, opened fire at the plant Thursday afternoon and is among the dead. He was firing with a long gun but also had a pistol, Walton said.

Walton said that 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”.

Rankin moved to Hesston six months ago, he said, because he was trying to escape a group of people that made it too easy for him to make bad choices.

The Hesston Police Department, the Harvey County Sheriff’s Department, the Newton Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the FBI investigated.

Ford had several convictions in Florida over the last decade.

Paul Mullet, the president and CEO of Excel Industries, confirmed the gunman worked at the firm, KAKE reported.

Marty Pierce, an Excel Industries employee who witnessed the shooting, says he initially thought the commotion was over a fire in the building – not a shooting. He said such orders are usually filed because there’s some type of violence in a relationship.

The only sign that something was different was a red Big Dog lawn mower sitting on the corner with an American flag blowing in the wind, then a yellow Raptor lawn mower a couple of doors down the street, with sunshine reflecting off the ripples of another flag.

Authorities say the attacker shot and wounded three people before storming into the factory, where he shot 15 others, killing three of them, before the officer killed him.