MARIETTA, Ga. -- A fired Coca-Cola truck driver wielding two pistols shot to death two of his bosses, then holed up inside an office of the soft drink giant's headquarters for several hours before police flushed him out with tear gas and shot him dead in an exchange of gunfire early Saturday.
John Wallace, 45, a 20-year employee of the company, was pronounced dead at 5 a.m. Saturday at Cobb General Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Also killed in the rampage were Wallace's supervisors, Maurice McCloskey and Al Parsons, Cobb County police said.
Police said Wallace was fired from his job Friday night for undetermined reasons and went to his locker at about 9:30 p.m. where he had two loaded handguns. Officers said he tracked down the two supervisors who fired him and shot both.
One of the supervisors died at the scene from gunshots while the other died of wounds at a hospital a short time later, police said.
Cobb County Police Chief Culver Johnson said Wallace, still armed with the handguns, barricaded himself for several hours in the office where he was told of his termination while police tried to talk him out.
'As near as we can say, at approximately (4:40 a.m.), negotiations had broken down where no progress was being made and we gave the suspect - who had already killed one person and seriously injured another -- the opportunity to come out, and he decided that he still wasn't of the mind to do so,' Johnson said.
'We felt, at that time, that using methods that have always been successful in the past, we introduced nonflammable gas into the area which he had barricaded himself and at that time gave him instructions about what to do,' Johnson said, explaining that officers ordered him to crawl out of the office under a cloud of tear gas.
'He followed all of those instructions, as to coming out and coming out on the floor, he followed those fine, but the information I have is he still had two handguns in his hands and from his position on the floor ... after being ordered to drop the weapons, he raised his body and the weapons, fired an estimate of three rounds at the officers at which time the officers returned fire in self-defense,' Johnson said.
Johnson said the officers shot Wallace and he was taken to Cobb General Hospital at 4:50 a.m. and died about 10 minutes later.
'If you fire upon people then you have to accept that responsibility,' Johnson said.
