2 fatally shot at soft drink bottler

CONCORD, N.C., June 13 (UPI) -- The office manager at a North Carolina soft-drink bottling plant and another person were shot dead Friday morning.

Guy Smith, deputy police chief in Concord, said that a man was seen leaving the Sun Drop plant at about 10 a.m., The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported. Police searched for the suspect using a helicopter and dogs.

One of the victims was identified as Donna Barnhardt, 59, who had worked for Sun Drop for 18 years, Smith said at an afternoon news conference. Darrell Wayne Noles, 44, of Concord, was not an employee.

There were three or four people in the plant at the time of the shooting, Smith said. Someone called police, saying there were "two people down" in the office.

Witnesses said that a young man with shoulder-length dreadlocks was seen leaving the plant at about 10 a.m. carrying a box. Smith suggested that the motive for the shootings may have been robbery.