News / Society

Disgruntled employee kills co-worker, himself in Texas shooting

Wednesday, 04 May 2016 3:51 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 04 May 2016 4:12 PM ]

A disgruntled Texas employee killed a co-worker and shot another one in the face before committing suicide on Wednesday.

Two people have been killed and at least one has been injured as the result of a shooting inside a trucking company in the US state of Texas, police have confirmed.

According to the Harris County sheriff, the shooting occurred Wednesday morning, when a disgruntled employee opened fire inside the Knight Transportation Company in the Houston suburb of Katy, killing a co-worker and injuring another before committing suicide.

Police also found a pistol on the shooter, who was fired earlier in the day.

"Other than he was terminated, we don't know anything about him," Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said, calling the shooting a "retaliatory act."

Police said the injured employee was shot in the face with a bean bag fired from a shotgun.

Witnesses said they heard multiple gunshots but it was not immediately clear how many people were injured and in what condition they were before heavily armed security forces swarmed the facility.

A police officer also hurt himself while trying to enter the building and had to be taken to the hospital.

The nearby Franz Elementary School and the Morton Ranch High School were immediately placed on lockdown following the deadly shooting.

Knight Transportation is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and boasts of operating a “fleet of over 4,000 tractors and more than 8,800 trailers” and while employing nearly 5,000 “associates.”

According to the shooting tracker website Gun Violence Archive, more than 4,400 people have been killed in US shootings since the start of 2016.

About 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in America at a cost of 2 to 3 billion dollars.

It is estimated that currently there are between 270 million and 300 million guns in the US, about one gun for one per person, according to the New York Daily News.

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