Yet another workplace massacre.

[Michael Fisher]

Thanks, OSHA, for disarming everyone in the country while they're at work.   


Ex-Employee Kills Himself After Shooting 3 in Factory
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/nyregion/27shoot.html

By MICHELLE O'DONNELL and JOHN HOLL
Published: September 27, 2005
A man who lost his job at a nail polish factory in the Hudson Valley last year after child pornography was found on his office computer returned yesterday and hunted down and shot two owners as well as an office manager before fatally shooting himself, the police said.

The violence badly shook employees of the factory, Verla International, and residents of the hamlet, New Windsor, N.Y. Many said they searched their memories of the man the police identified as the gunman, Victor M. Piazza of Warwick, N.Y., to try to understand his outburst.

The three victims, who were all shot in the head, remained hospitalized last night.

The office manager, JoAnne Obrien, 48, of Monroe, N.Y., was in grave condition at St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, a spokeswoman for the hospital said. She was declared brain dead, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

Ms. Obrien, who is also the factory receptionist, was the first employee that Mr. Piazza encountered when he walked through the doors about 12:25 p.m. yesterday, the police said. He fired one round from his .38-caliber revolver into her head before continuing inside, said Chief Michael C. Bisotti of the New Windsor Police Department.

He then found and shot Robert Roth of Wallkill, N.Y., one of the owners, twice in the head, before continuing upstairs, where he also shot Mario Maffei, 57, of Greenwich, Conn., in the head, Chief Bisotti said.

Mr. Piazza then walked into an office, sat at a desk and fired a shot into his own head, Chief Bisotti said.

Although critically wounded, Mr. Roth, 65, was able to stagger from the building and was found by officers slumped near a grassy hill in the company parking lot. Last night, he was transferred from St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he was listed in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The shooting caused bedlam in the factory, a squat, tan brick building, and in the surrounding area.

"People were running, yelling, the police were trying to control the situation," said Bob Spreer, who works in a tobacco shop next to the factory. "It was chaos for a while."

Mr. Spreer said he had played golf on occasion with Mr. Roth, whom he described as a "true gentleman, a really wonderful guy."

"It's awful that someone would want to do this to him or anyone," he added.

Neighbors of Ms. Obrien described her and her boyfriend as a generous couple who never accepted payment for kindnesses like plowing snow in the mountaintop development.

An avid gardener, Ms. Obrien, who has a son in college, is also devoted to her small dogs, they said, and enjoyed periodic visits of a black bear to her backyard, despite the fact that it frightened the dogs. "Joanne liked having it in the backyard," said a neighbor, Ron Sommer, 43.

Last night, officials said they were investigating whether Mr. Piazza's dismissal in 2004 touched off the rampage. Chief Bisotti said that Mr. Piazza, a quality-control manager, had been involved in a dispute with another worker at the plant and that a short while later, company officials discovered child pornography on Mr. Piazza's computer, fired him and referred the case to the police.

In July, Mr. Piazza pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography. He was sentenced to 10 years' probation and was classified as a sex offender. Chief Bisotti said there had been no complaints filed against Mr. Piazza since 2004.

The child pornography case was not Mr. Piazza's first brush with the law, the Orange County district attorney, Francis D. Phillips, said yesterday. In 1984, Mr. Piazza was arrested on a charge of unlawfully dealing with a child, he said, although the facts were unclear.

Grieving friends and neighbors of Mr. Piazza painted a picture of an ordinary man who lived with his widowed father and enjoyed puttering around as a handyman.

Outside the two-story gray house where Mr. Piazza's elderly father sequestered himself yesterday, a neighbor, Juan Santiago, 52, said he thought Mr. Piazza had been framed by someone he had fired. Mr. Santiago, 52, speaking as he stood outside on the gravel driveway in the drizzling rain, said Mr. Piazza had lent him money in the past. "I ask for a favor, he never told me no. He is like a brother to me."

Randy Harris, 56, who lives across the street, said the father and son were well liked and had lived in the neighborhood since at least the mid-1980's. About three years ago, he said, Mr. Piazza's mother died.

Mr. Harris said he had heard of the child pornography case, but never felt that his own children were in any danger around Mr. Piazza.

Mr. Harris said that Mr. Piazza had lent him a ladder when he painted his house and one time had fixed a leak in his bathroom. "I have no idea why he did what he did," Mr. Harris said. "But as far being a neighbor of his, he was a great guy."

[tracysaboe]

I conceal carry my gun while I'm at one of my jobs sometimes.

Tracy