Man in Connecticut Shooting Identified as Omar Thornton

By Alicia Cruz

The Black Urban Times

A Connecticut Government official, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the incident, confirmed the death toll at the beer distribution center in Manchester, Connecticut to be nine.

Officials say Omar Thornton, a driver at Hartford Distributors, walked into the facility around 7 a.m. Tuesday opening fire on co-workers, killing nine people and injuring several others before turning the gun on himself, according to Reuters.com.

A union official told Boston.com that 34-year-old Thornton, who had been asked to resign, had been employed at Hartford Distributors "for a couple of years" and was facing a disciplinary hearing.

After the shooting stopped, officers searching the building found the body of Thornton. Manchester police Lt. Joe San Antonio, who did not elaborate on how Thornton was shot or where he was found, simply said he had been shot.

Additional media outlets have reported that a vice-president at the distributorship is among the injured victims and is the cousin of Brett Hollander, whose family owns the business Hollander said his cousin was shot in the arm and the face.

Two of the injured victims have been taken to Hartford Hospital where one is in critical condition, and the other is listed in fair condition. Families of workers gathered at the town high school comforting one another as they awaited information on their loved ones.

"There was a guy that was supposed to, was asked to resign, to come in to resign and chose not to and shot my cousin and my co-workers," Hollander told the Associated Press.

Firefighters put out a fire that Thornton is alleged to have ignited at the warehouse, about 10 miles east of Hartford. The bomb squad was also called in as a precaution.

The shooting took place during the plants shift change and officials say approximately 50 to 70 people were present, said Hollander, whose family owns Hartford Distributors.

Joanne Hannah, the mother of Thornton's girlfriend, told Boston.com that Thornton, who is African American, had complained to his supervisors about racial harassment after a picture of a noose and a racial epithet had been hung on a bathroom wall at the facility, Hannah said. She said her daughter told her that Thornton's supervisors had not responded to his complaints.

After shooting his co-workers, Thornton reportedly telephoned his mother, Hannah told ABC News. "He wanted to say goodbye and he loved everybody," said Hannah, whose daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for eight years. Thornton reportedly shot himself as emergency crews responded to the chaotic scene.

"Everybody's got a breaking point," said Hannah, who added that Thornton was with her daughter on Monday night and he gave no indication that he planned the shooting.

James Battaglio, a spokesman for the families who own the distributorship, said he had no immediate information about the allegations of racial harassment.

States Representative Ryan Barry, a lifelong resident, said the Hollander family, who is widely respected in Manchester, sponsors local sports teams and the family is "civic-minded."

"Everybody knows the Hollanders as good, generous, upstanding people," said Barry. "They're embedded in the community. Everyone knows Hartford Distributors. They treat their employees very well and they're part of the fabric of the town."

The Hartford Distributors shooting is the worst workplace shooting in Connecticut history since the bloody rampage at Connecticut Lottery Corp. Headquarters in Newington on March 6, 1998 when Matthew Beck, 35, a state lottery accountant killed four senior lottery officials before committing suicide. Beck had been entangled in a seven-month dispute with the agency over job duties and pay before the shooting.

The shooting is the nation's deadliest since the mass shooting aboard Fort Hood just outside Killeen, Texas on November 5, 2009. Officials say Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded 30 others when he walked into his workplace, the Soldier Readiness Center, and according to eyewitnesses, took a seat at an empty table, bowed his head for several seconds then jumped onto a desk shouting, "Allahu Akbar!" before opening fire on fellow soldiers.

Hasan was eventually shot by Army Civilian Police officers and is now paralyzed from the waist down. He has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell offered condolences to the families of Tuesday's victims in a prepared statement.

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