Three dead plus gunman in Kansas shootings; 14 injured

Three people have died in a series of shootings at three sites near Hesston, Kansas, including a lawn care products factory, authorities said Thursday night.

The alleged shooter also died after a confrontation with law enforcement at the Excel Industries plant, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said during a Thursday night news conference.

Walton said all the dead were shot inside Excel Industries and a total of 14 were injured in the shootings, 10 of them critically.

The shooter, an employee of Excel, was armed with a long gun and a handgun, the sheriff said. Police killed the suspect when he began firing on officers, who received the first call about the shooting shortly before 5 p.m. local time. The shooter was dead by 5:23 p.m., and the officer who took him down is “a hero as far as I’m concerned,” Walton said.

The sheriff would not identify the suspect or discuss a motive, but said there were “some things that triggered this individual.”

The company employs 1,000 people and about 150 of them were on the job at the time, according to Walton.

One shooting took place in Newton, Kansas, with someone in a vehicle suffering a gunshot wound to the shoulder, Walton said. Another person was shot in the leg at another site, Walton said. One person was shot in the parking lot of the Excel site and the remainder inside the factory, Walton said.

There are about four or five crime scenes in Newton, Harvey County, and Excel in Hesston, Walton said.

One witness told KAKE television that the alleged shooter carried what looked to be an AK-47 assault rifle.

Marty Pierce told the news organization he heard his co-workers yelling "fire" and that he narrowly missed being hit.

"They were saying, 'Fire, fire,'" Pierce said. "We didn't know they were getting shot."

Hesston College nearby was on lockdown in the wake of the incident, Walton said.

"This is just a horrible incident that's happened here ... please bear with us as we try to get through this," Walton said. "There's going to be a lot of sad people before this is all over."

Hesston is about 36 miles northwest of Wichita.

Excel Industries is a family-owned business that was founded in 1960, according to the Kansas City Star. The company is a leading maker of turf-care products and distributes its mowing products through Hustler Turf Equipment and BigDog Mower product lines, according to the company's website.

Contributing: The Associated Press