Five die in factory shooting rampage

A man who was sacked from a factory after he was caught stealing from his employer forced his way into his former workplace and shot colleagues one day before he was due to report to prison.

William D. Baker, 66, killed five people including himself and wounded four others.

Baker who was due to start a five-month sentence today showed up at the engine plant in suburban Chicago Monday with an arsenal of weapons in a golf bag and made his way through the vast building, blasting away with an AK-47 assault rifle, police said.

Employees scattered in terror during the rampage that lasted about 10 to 15 minutes at the plant, run by Navistar International, a major truck and engine maker.

Baker shot seven people, three of them fatally, in an engineering area, then went into an office, where he killed one more person and then shot himself, police said.

Baker had been scheduled to surrender today to serve his five-month federal sentence for conspiracy to commit theft from an interstate shipment. He pleaded guilty last June, six years after he was fired.

Martin Reutimann, a 24-year-old engineer, was sitting at his desk when he heard gunfire.

‘‘I heard somebody yell, ‘There’s a guy in the centre aisle with a gun!’’’ Reutimann said, referring to the long hallway where engines are tested. Reutimann said he saw people running past him, then fled and called the police.

Police said Baker showed up at the plant with his weapons. When a security guard tried to stop him, Baker put a .38-calibre revolver to her side and forced his way into the plant, police said.

Once inside, Baker fired the assault rifle, police said. He also carried a shotgun and a .38-calibre hunting rifle, police said. They were not sure whether those weapons were used.

The plant, about 15 miles from company headquarters in downtown Chicago, employs about 1,400 people.

Navistar identified three of the dead as Baker; Daniel Dorsch, 52, a supervisor in the engine lab; and Robert Wehrheim, 47, a lab technician. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office identified the two others killed as Michael Brus, 48, and William Garcia, 44.

Of the wounded, one was in critical condition: Carl Swanson, 45, who was shot in the abdomen.

Baker was a tool room attendant from Carol Stream, Illinois, who had worked at the plant for 39 years before he was fired in 1994.

According to his plea agreement, Baker admitted helping a fellow plant employee steal diesel engines and components worth 195,400 (£132,000). He used his forklift to hoist the engines onto a truck driven by the other employee.

The thefts began in the fall of 1993 and stopped the next spring. Federal prosecutor William Hogan said Baker was part of a ring that included three Navistar employee, two former employees and another person. All have pleaded guilty.

Baker was sentenced on November 7. He had faced five months of house arrest after his prison term and had been ordered to repay the £132,000.

The US Attorney’s office also said Baker pleaded guilty in 1998 to a sex charge involving a family member under 17. He was placed on probation.

The shooting comes six weeks after seven people were shot to death at Edgewater Technology Inc., an internet consulting company at Wakefield, Massachusetts.

Software tester Michael McDermott is charged with murder in the December 26 rampage. Authorities said the shooting may have stemmed from an Internal Revenue Service order to seize part of his wages to repay back taxes.

Navistar is the nation’s second-biggest producer of heavy-duty trucks, which it sells under the International brand. It also manufactures mid-sized trucks, school buses and diesel engines, which it also sells to Ford and other truck makers.

The Melrose Park plant makes engines.

Navistar has plants in Canada, Mexico and the United States and a contract manufacturing operation in Brazil. It exports to more than 70 countries.