A crazed gunman, identified by multiple sources as Cedric Larry Ford, 38, took his rifle and pistol on a rampage through a small Kansas town Thursday, shooting three people before storming into the central Kansas factory where he worked and shooting 15 others, killing three of them.
Ford had just been served a protection from abuse order that likely triggered the attack, a sheriff said Friday.
Thanks to the heroic reaction of a lone police officer, Ford was brought down before he could kill more.
All of the dead were shot Thursday inside Excel Industries, a plant in Hesston that makes lawnmower products, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said. Of those hurt, 10 were critically wounded, he said.
The shooting came less than a week after authorities say a man opened fire at several locations in the Kalamazoo, Michigan, area, leaving six people dead and two severely wounded.
Walton said his office served the suspect with the protection order at around 3:30 p.m., which was about 90 minutes before the first shooting happened. He said such orders are usually filed because there’s some type of violence in a relationship, but he didn’t disclose the nature of the relationship in question.
While driving to the factory, the gunman shot a man on the street in the nearby town of Newton, striking him in the shoulder. A short time later, he shot someone else in the leg at an intersection.
“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 department said in a release. “He was seen entering the building with an assault-style long gun.”
Martin Espinoza, who works at Excel, was in the plant during the attack. 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 said the shooter pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. At that point, the gunman got a different gun and Espinoza ran.
“I took off running. He came outside after a few people, shot outside a few times, shot at the officers coming onto the scene at the moment and then reloaded in front of the company,” Espinoza told The Associated Press. “After he reloaded he went inside the lobby in front of the building and that is the last I seen him.”
A single Hesston officer responding to the scene exchanged fire with the shooter, who was killed. The officer was not injured.
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.” He said the gunman also had a pistol.
The officer who killed the man is “a hero as far as I’m concerned,” Walton said.
Erin McDaniel, spokeswoman for the nearby city of Newton, said the suspect was known to local authorities. She wouldn’t elaborate.
A nearby college was briefly locked down.
Later Thursday night, several law enforcement vehicles surrounded the suspect’s home in a Newton trailer park. The Harvey County Sheriff’s Department initially said authorities believed the suspect’s roommate could be inside. But McDaniel, the Newton spokeswoman, said later that the standoff had ended and no one was inside.
Hesston is a community of about 3,700 residents about 35 miles north of Wichita.
Excel Industries was founded there in 1960. The company manufactures Hustler and Big Dog mowing equipment and was awarded the Governor’s Exporter of the Year award in 2013 from the Kansas Department of Commerce.
Gov. Sam Brownback issued a statement late Thursday, calling the shootings “a tragedy that affects every member of the community.”
Walton said the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had been called in to assist. A spokeswoman for the Kansas City office of the FBI did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday night.
“This is just a horrible incident. … There’s going to be a lot of sad people before this is all over,” Walton said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
so what was his motive?
Hatred
Frances, Walton said his office served the suspect with the protection order at around 3:30 p.m., which was about 90 minutes before the first shooting happened. He said such orders are
The officer who served the PO must have noticed something wrong.
Sounds like ‘death by cop,’ together with, ‘and I’m not going down alone.’
I’ll bet he was on psychotropic prescription meds. Sometimes they make people snap.
Good bet-so many are….
Most drugs are poison to our bodies and many people suffer for the money makers big pharma!
I am not a head doctor, but I have read several of their works and many believe the line between sanity and Insanity is a razors edge. I guess proof of that is how many military members come away from combat with their minds greatly agitated. I think they are calling it PTSD. Why does it affect some and not others is the question. I have heard that the suicide rate is higher for combat vets vs. combat from 30,000 feet. I had a few episodes that scared me out of my wits. I think everyone has had a ” I think this is it” moment sometime in their lives, some snap others quit shaking , get a cup of caffeine and go on about their lives.
Gun Grab!
Don’t forget the only way the shooter was stopped was with a gun, not a knife or baseball bat. Unfortunately anyone determined to do things such as this will come up with something and if not a gun maybe a sword.
Being as the shooter is Black, you know OBOZO isn’t gonna make any comments about it or start talking his BS about GUN Control. This guy was bad news and had a record in Miami, FL, doesn’t say if he did any jail time down there.
This is why it is important for Americans to ARM themselves, get their concealed carry permits and be ready to defend themselves when this crap happens!
I just came from a church,if he had come in there,I’d have shot him dead if Glenn didn’t do it first.
AMen concealed carry & be ready.
YOU WATCH THE LIBTARDS PUMP THIS OVER THE DEEP END. HELL THEY WILL TELL YOU THAT THE SHOOTER WAS WAYNE LA PIERRE,S BROTHER. OBUMBA JUST CALLS IT WORKPLACE VIOLENCE. AND IF GUNS WHERE TOTALLY OUTLAWED, THIS GUY WOULD STILL HAVE ONE.
My prayers are with the families and friends and coworkers,this is an awful event ! But PLEASE let us not turn this into a circus of gun control ! I still have not seen a gun kill anyone on its own. My own family member was murdered by a thug with a gun . If you serve a protection order against someone maybe you should temporary lock their weapons up till they can show they are not a threat to any one ! I don’t know for sure what to do except open up the mental institutions again and quit trusting the crazy people to take their meds on their own !
Bonnie: Many years ago when I lived in NYC, I had a target license and my firearms were always stored locked and unloaded. My ex and I had a loud argument one night over her drinking –which was heard by a neighbor who called the police. Because there were guns in my home and young children the cops confiscated my guns “for the safety of the kids” OR so they stated. In time my wife and I divorced it took me MANY phone alls and letters to the NYC police from me AND MY LAWYER before my firearms were returned. As a matter of fact it took over THREE YEARS for me to get them back…. What does the Constitution say about “Shall NOT be Infringed”…..How have we come to a point where certain municipalities can circumvent the Constitution? (BTW both my kids who were under 18 at that time were better shots then I was…..)
Do not, under any circumstance, give the government the right to lock down or confiscate any guns. If we were all capable of being armed, that substandard human being would have been dead within the first few shots. If we give the government the right to look for and confiscate guns because of someone else’s complaint, they will use that as grounds to expand that search and seizure to you and me.
More and more it seems that buildings/businesses MUST hire some type of security personnel OR at a minimum install some kind of alarm system. In this day and age of “do it yourself” alarm systems that would be the cheapest way to go…..my sympathies to all those injured or killed.
Check this out to get a direct response to this type of violence: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4648609336001/judge-jeanine-time-to-batten-down-the-hatches/?intcmp=hpvid1#sp=show-clips
It would be a lot easier just to let anyone carry a gun.
Probably, black panther or terrorist they are the haters. It’s past time for all people to be forces for good (do not kill, lie, steal…) and study to make your life a plus for mankind not a minus as this hater did. Eternity is a long time to pay for murdering one of Gods created human beings for any reason except in self defense. Again: “Thou shall not kill’s only exception is in self defense.”
Blacks are being convinced everyone hates them-by Black rabble rousers like Sharpton.
It is a sad thing indeed when people are shot that aren’t involved in this crazy persons situation. Maybe someone should have been carrying concealed instead of a gun free zone (another catch phrase of multiple moving unarmed targets). Every time I see a sign stating a gun free zone, I worry that this is another massacre ZONE waiting to happen because of political correctness and over zealous anti-gun politicians.
Throughout the U.S.A. every area should be a gun-allowed area for every citizen. Gun-free areas are playgrounds for criminals who don’t obey laws. Putting up a sign has no effect whatever on wicked people, except to let them know everyone there is a potential victim.
I live in Wichita which is 35 miles from Hesston where the shooting took place. The families need a lot of prayers. What they are going thru right now, no one should have to endure. This happened because no one reacted to the signs, which go way back & were obvious. To begin with had he been checked out before he bought such massive guns, those people would be alive today. It’s guns in the wrong hands that kill people. This needs a complete turnover.
How would anyone know where and from whom he bought or stole the guns he used? When only criminals can have guns, honest people are surely endangered.
If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons make people fat.
He got the guns from his estranged girlfriend. He did not purchase them. she is now being charged accordingly.
Has the whole world gone crazy??? Your coments are right on about everyone needs to be able to carry these days to protect themselves and others! This is especially true now that obama has allowed so many refugees into our countey!
I wish the Officers would disarm him before serving the order, either protection or restraining order, as a measure of prevention.
It takes 90 to 120 days {they say} to get a CCW permit once you have completed the course and the paperwork. I have been waiting for about 100 days now and I had a Top Secret clearance with 21 years in the military. Don’t expect to take a course to carry a concealed weapon and have your permit the next day.
I got my CCW in 2 weeks
What a funny guy!
All right yeah! The shooter went to a better place. Another evil guy added to Hell. By this time he has already experienced a lot more pain than all the victims combined every had in their whole life. I hope he likes his new home. Thank God for Hell. It’s such a wonderful place. My favorite this is when the police kill these evil people and they go straight to Hell, no parole, early releases or repeating crimes or anything. I love it! Right now this killer is in the section of Hell for murderers where he will hang on meat hooks in a human butcher shop. Then the demons will put him on a cutting board and dissect him and rip all his organs out one by one and gut him. Then he will have his limbs cut off into small pieces. This will go on for at least 1000 years until he reaches his ultimate destination: The Lake of Fire in which he will burn for all eternity. He has a great future in store for him. You don’t get away with anything in this life. Not one single thing will go unseen or unpunished. This is a more fitting punishment than life without parole. Like I said, he went to a better place. This is what really happens. See this video for proof, skip ahead 8 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWXkBBIaiVc
First, i question why a “concealed carry PERMIT” is needed anyhow; the Constitution says that government agents “may not infringe” upon our right to bear arms. Whether you bear them openly or secretly, bearing them is bearing them, a Right we have that PRECEDES and will LONG OUTLAST the Constitution…for the Constitution was written to DEFINE and LIMIT what powers sworn agents of government might lawfully exercise, just the NAMED powers and NO MORE.
So again, why does ANY Sovereign Citizen NEED to have the “permission” of a fictional entity – the State, which was the creation of We the People, who are superior to it – in order to exercise a Right?
Remember this: every time a Right is “licensed,” it is NO LONGER A RIGHT, it is a “privilege” which can be withdrawn at any time.
What next? A license to speak freely? A license to assemble peaceably with your friends and neighbors? A license to practice your religion?
One thing that’s definitely needed is for more people to read “The Law,” by Frederick Bastiat, and “Our Enemy, the State,” by Albert Nock(in the latter, he makes a clear distinction between good governance and a fictional entity called “The State,” a Good Thing to know).
But the gun control nutz will, as usual, trumpet the boring and obnoxious “We must control all guns” nonsense-meme that plays into the hands of the NWO/OWG/globalist punks. i don’t know why these a-holes don’t get the fact that NO LAW WILL CONTROL CRAZIES OR Criminals – why? They’re crazy or they’re criminals, duh. The best we can do is protect ourselves against them, for unless/until Christ returns, they’ll always be here.
i expect that during the investigation into the causes of this man’s insanity-rampage, at least 2 things will be discovered: during his teens, he spent ENORMOUS hours playing videogames that numbed his sensibilities and made fellow human beings out to be so much inconsequential garbage to be blown away, and second, that he was on some kind of mind-altering drug like Xanax or other, whether prescribed or not.
But every time i see the “we must eliminate all guns” nonsense being spouted on any blog, i always post my long list of 20th Century governments that first registered firearms(sometimes ammo, too), then banned guns, then rounded up and exterminated anywhere from thousands to millions of unarmed people, unable to defend themselves.
Those who think that ONLY police or military should have firearms are unknowingly(or KNOWINGLY, which is far worse) giving their approval to the wholesale slaughters of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, and God knows how many others…for in THOSE governments, only the police and military could “legally” bear arms, right?
Remember this, too: everything the American Revolutionists did was “illegal,” and everything King George’s men and mercenaries did was “legal.”
hu ray for the cop we tax payers don’t have to feed the sob for the rest of his life
These people want a race war against people that have never caused them any harm. Their downfall is that the police don’t give up, they will hunt them down. This explains why they hate police, they want to kill us and continue killing us. I take risks everyday because I ignore “gun free zone” signs. I WILL protect myself because I’m an American with that right and the government has no right to tell me otherwise.