ALBERTVILLE (Alabama, US), June 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Two people were killed and two others injured after a gunman opened fire inside a fire hydrant factory in the U.S. state of Alabama, before later taking his own life, police said.
The shooting occurred at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Mueller Co. plant in the city of Albertville, according to local police chief Jamie Smith.
“For an unknown reason an employee of the industry began firing a weapon at fellow employees,” Smith said in a statement.
Michael Lee Dobbins and David Lee Horton, both of Boaz, Alabama, died in the shooting at Mueller Co., around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, said Albertville Police Chief Jamie Smith. The shooter was later identified as Andreas Deon Horton, 34, of Dekalb County.
Smith said there is no known familial relation between the Hortons and that they had “no ties” other than working at the same place.
The two wounded employees were taken to a hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Police have not determined a motive.
The shooter used a handgun to fire an unknown number of rounds at his co-workers before fleeing in a maroon Jeep Cherokee, Smith said.
The suspect and his vehicle were located just before 6:00 a.m. in the area of Carlisle Street in Guntersville, where police found the man “deceased from what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Smith said, adding there was no danger to the public.
Multiple weapons were recovered from the vehicle, Smith said.
Albertville, in northern Alabama, is the largest city in Marshall County, about 60 miles northeast of Birmingham. More than 400 people work at the Mueller Co. plant, which makes water distribution and measurement products, giving the city its nickname, “Fire Hydrant Capital of the World.”
Albertville Mayor Tracy Honea called Mueller “an integral part of the lifeblood and workforce” of Albertville for almost 50 years and offered her condolences to the families of victims.
“They are dedicated, important partners of this community and we hurt with them today,” she said in a statement.
Albertville Police Department said in a statement that businesses in the industrial park where Mueller Co. is located are free to conduct business as normal.
Mueller Co. is an industrial manufacturing company specializing in potable water distribution products, including fire hydrants. The company has 11 locations across the United States and Canada, according to its website. — NNN-AGENCIES
