4 Dead, 14 Injured in Kansas Shootings

Gunman is among those killed
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 25, 2016 6:40 PM CST
Updated Feb 25, 2016 9:22 PM CST
At Least 2 Dead in Shooting at Kansas Lawn-Care Plant
Police guard the front door of Excel Industries in Hesston, Kan., on Thursday.   (Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

Four people including the gunman are dead and 14 more are injured after a series of shootings in south-central Kansas, police say. Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said at a news conference there are "a number of crime scenes involved," including the Excel Industries plant in Hesston, north of Wichita, which manufactures lawn mower products, reports the AP. The suspect, who Walton said was or had been an Excel employee, was fatally shot by authorities. The sheriff said a shooting also took place in the plant parking lot and two other locations nearby. He said the suspect traveled between the sites and fired from his car. The scene at Excel Industries has been secured, he said.

Walton said a lot was still unknown about the Kansas attacks, including whether the suspect was still employed at Excel Industries. He told KAKE-TV that he wasn't sure if the man had been fired. "I don't have a lot of answers," Walton said. Excel employee Martin Espinoza says he heard people yelling to others to get out of the building, heard popping, and then saw the shooter, a co-worker he described as typically pretty calm. He said 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 Espinoza took off running. "I looked right at him and he looked right at me," he said. The shooting comes less than a week after authorities say a man opened fire at several locations in Kalamazoo, Mich., leaving six people dead and two severely wounded. (More shooting stories.)

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