MANCHESTER, Conn. - A driver caught stealing beer from the warehouse where he worked agreed to resign Tuesday and then, as "cold as ice," one of his victims said, went on a shooting rampage, killing eight people and injuring two before committing suicide.
Omar Thornton, 34, pulled out a handgun after a meeting in which he was shown video evidence of the thefts and was offered the chance to quit or be fired.
"Then he went out on this rampage," company Vice President Steve Hollander told The Associated Press. "He was cool and calm. He didn't yell. He was cold as ice.
"He didn't protest when we were meeting with him to show him the video of him stealing. He didn't contest it. He didn't complain. He didn't argue. He didn't admit or deny anything. He just agreed to resign. And then he just unexplainably pulled out his gun and started blasting."
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Hollander said he thinks Thornton had guns stashed in his lunchbox. The executive said two people standing right near him were shot in the head and killed, but he was only grazed on the jaw and the arm.
"He shot at me twice and hit me a couple times. By just the grace of God, I don't know how he missed me," he said.
About 50 to 70 people were in the Hartford Distributors warehouse about 10 miles east of Hartford during a shift change when the gunman opened fire around 7 a.m., said Brett Hollander, Steve Hollander's cousin and a member of the family that owns the distributorship.
"I was on the phone with 911 and then I saw him running outside of my office window, shooting his gun, carrying his lunch- box, which must have had his weapons in it," Steve Hollander said. "It doesn't seem real to me now. It seems like I'm watching a movie."
The shooting was over in a matter of minutes. The victims were found all over the complex, and authorities said they didn't know if Thornton fired randomly or targeted specific co-workers.
After those shootings, Thornton called his mother, said Joanne Hannah, the mother of Thornton's girlfriend.
"He wanted to say goodbye and that he loved everybody," she said.
Thornton was alive when police arrived but killed himself before officers got to him, Manchester Police Chief Marc Montminy said.
It was the nation's deadliest shooting since 13 people were killed at Fort Hood, Texas, in November. A military psychiatrist is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in that case.
