Kansas workplace shooting leaves at least 2 dead

Outside of Excel Industries in Hesston, Kansas.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/fox25news)

At least two people were killed and three injured during a workplace shooting in Hesston, Kansas, Thursday evening.

Excel Industries manufactures lawn care products, and an employee named Dillon told KSN he was unloading palettes when he heard "a pop pop." Another employee named Donna told KSN once she knew what was going on, she fled the plant, running to her truck. "I didn't even buckle my seat belt I was so scared," she said. Hesston is about 36 miles northwest of Wichita.

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UPDATE: 5:32 p.m. ET: Sheriff T. Walton said during a press conference Thursday night that the shooting suspect was an Excel employee, who was shot and killed. There are a "number of crime scenes," he said, as there was a shooting in the parking lot and inside the Excel building. Up to 20 people may be injured, he said, and authorities are working on identifying the dead and wounded. Mario Espinoza, an Excel employee, told The Associated Press the shooter pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but it was empty. "I looked right at him and he looked right at me," he said. Espinoza said at that point, he ran as the shooter went to get another gun.

Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.