HESSTON, Kan., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- At least three people were killed and 14 injured in a mass shooting Thursday at a Kansas facility that manufactures lawn care products, authorities said.
The shooting occurred at about 5 p.m. at Excel Industries, located in the town of Hesston, north of Wichita, police said. Many of the 14 injured were in critical condition in local hospitals. About 150 people were working at the time of the shooting spree.
The suspected shooter, identified as an Excel employee, was shot and killed by authorities.
He used an assault rifle, perhaps a pistol as well, and appeared to have shot his victims at random, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said.
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"I'm OK, the Lord took good care of me," a woman named Edna told KWCH-TV. She encountered the shooter as she was leaving the grocery store. The man got out of his truck and shot at her as he walked toward her car. She said she escaped by quickly putting her car in reverse.
A co-worker at the facility said he was unloading pallets in the back of the building when he heard "a pop, pop."
"We thought it was just metal falling on the ground, and then the doors opened, people started screaming, coming out," a co-worker named Dylan, who still had blood on his hands from trying to help a shot co-worker, told KSNW. "We really didn't know what was going on."
Hesston College was placed on lockdown due to what police called an "active shooter" event.
The Wichita TV station also reported a different shooting in the town of Newton, but it wasn't immediately known whether it was related to the incident at Excel.
Excel manufactures "turf care" products, such as lawnmowers.
