NEW YORK, May 13 (UPI) -- A Mississippi man who killed six Lockheed Martin co-workers and then shot himself had threatened to carry out race-based attacks, ABC News reported.
Doug Williams left a company ethics and diversity training meeting in July 2003, returned shortly afterward with several weapons and proceeded to shoot several people, including the man he thought complained about his racial slurs.
Six people were killed and eight others wounded in the rampage.
Williams had made death threats and racial slurs for 18 months prior to the shootings, ABC News' "Primetime" reported. The news organization cited Lockheed Martin documents and interviews with Lockheed employees, including shooting survivors as evidence.
ABC says Lockheed Martin called the shootings the "senseless acts of single man" but lawyers for some of the victims say the incident was a "hate crime" and are suing the defense contractor for racial discrimination.
Lockheed Martin Chief Executive Officer Robert Stevens told the company annual meeting a "zero tolerance policy" would have short-circuited any long-term abuse.
