The Shooting
On September 14, 1989, Wesbecker, who was nicknamed "Rocky" by his colleagues, parked his car in front of the main entrance of Standard Gravure and entered the plant at 8:30 a.m. carrying a Type 56 rifle, (a Chinese-made semiautomatic AK-47 derivative), a SIG Sauer P226 9mm pistol and a duffel bag containing two MAC-11, a Snub-nosed .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Model 12 Airweight revolver, a bayonet and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
He took the elevator to the executive reception area on the third floor and, as soon as the doors opened, began firing at receptionists Sharon Needy, killing her, and Angela Bowman, leaving her paralyzed by a shot in the back. Searching for Michael Shea, president of Standard Gravure, and other supervisors and bosses of the plant, Wesbecker calmly walked through the hallways, deliberately shooting at people. He killed James Husband and injured Forrest Conrad, Paula Warman and John Stein, a maintenance supervisor, who was shot in the head and abdomen, before heading down the stairs to the pressroom, where he killed Paul Sallee and wounded Stanley Hatfield and David Sadenfaden, two electricians from Marine Electric who were working on a broken machine.
Leaving the duffel bag under a stairwell, Wesbecker walked down to the basement, where he encountered pressman John Tingle, who, alerted by the loud noises, went to see what was going on. Tingle greeted his colleague, asking him what was happening. Wesbecker replied: "Hi John...I told them I'd be back. Get away from me." After Tingle had gone out of the way Wesbecker continued his path through the basement, shooting Richard Barger in the back, killing him. According to witnesses Wesbecker approached Barger's body and apologized, apparently he killed him accidentally, as he did not see who he was shooting at.
Back on the press floor he shot at anyone in his way, killing James Wible and Lloyd White and finally entered the break room where he emptied his magazine hitting all seven workers present and killed William Ganote with a shot to the head. Wesbecker then reloaded and resumed firing, fatally wounding Kenneth Fentress.
When Wesbecker stepped out to the pressroom he pulled his SIG Sauer, put it under his chin and shot himself, ending his shooting spree that had lasted for about half an hour. He had fired about forty rounds, leaving eight people dead and twelve wounded. Additionally one person suffered a heart attack.
When police searched Wesbecker's house they recovered a shotgun, a Colt 9-millimeter revolver, a .32 revolver and a starter's pistol, and found Wesbecker's will, as well as a copy of Time Magazine on the kitchen table, featuring an article about Patrick Purdy who had killed five children and injured thirty others with a Type 56 assault rifle, the same weapon as used by Wesbecker, at a school in Stockton, California earlier the same year.
Read more about this topic: Standard Gravure Shooting
Famous quotes containing the word shooting:
“After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“... though it is by no means requisite that the American women should emulate the men in the pursuit of the whale, the felling of the forest, or the shooting of wild turkeys, they might, with advantage, be taught in early youth to excel in the race, to hit a mark, to swim, and in short to use every exercise which could impart vigor to their frames and independence to their minds.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)