Tuesday’s shooting at a FedEx plant in Kennesaw is another on a long list of workplace and mass shootings that have occurred nationwide. Metro Atlanta has not been immune to the violence, recording some of the country’s most high-profile mass killings in the workplace since 1996.
Here are some of the most prominent:
April 3, 1996: Tracey Lavallie of Senoia, the wife of a Clayton County police sergeant and the mother of two young children, was shot to death by a co-worker in the parking lot of the Hoshizaki America Inc. plant. Samuel J. Quick Jr., 25, of Tyrone told investigators that he and Lavallie had broken up and that she'd refused to renew the relationship. Quick pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to two life terms.
June 16, 1996: Wilbur Larry Jackson, 34, walked into the Kandlestix store in Underground Atlanta and fired his .357-caliber Magnum twice at his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend, Trina Newson. He then shot himself and died at the scene. Newson recovered.
May 15, 1997: Richard Luke Alexis walked up to estranged girlfriend Cheryl Miller, 44, at her desk at Dalton Discount Carpets on Sullivan Road in College Park and shot her three times with a .380-caliber pistol. Miller died at the scene and Alexis committed suicide after driving away.
Nov. 3, 1997: Reginald Mason shot his 28-year-old co-worker Jarrett Dover five times because he'd refused to pick up some trash at Pauleez Custom Cycle Repair in Doraville. Witnesses said Mason and Dover argued often about seemingly trivial matters, with Dover usually playing the aggressor. But they were cordial, so much so that on the day of the shooting, Mason picked Dover up at the Doraville train station and drove him to work, as usual. Mason was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years.
July 29, 1999: In what is considered Atlanta's most deadly workplace shooting, a smiling Mark O. Barton, 44, walked into Momentum Securities on Piedmont Road and opened fired. Minutes later he did the same thing across the street at All-Tech Investment. At both companies, he had traded, and lost, hundreds of thousands of dollars. When the massacre was over, nine people in the two Buckhead offices were dead in Georgia's worst mass murder. Thirteen other people were injured. At both offices, Barton had fired 39 times, hitting 22 people. Later that night, after being cornered by police in Cobb County, Barton killed himself. What no one knew at the time is that two days before the slaughter, Barton had killed his wife and two children with a hammer.
July 14, 2001: Two women at a Home Depot in Morrow were shot and killed by 22-year-old Brandon Bolton, who was hunting down his girlfriend, Lisa Atkins. According to witnesses, Atkins had just driven up to the Home Depot, where she had once been employed, apparently seeking refuge. Bolton was right behind her in his mother's Saturn. Tiffani Busch-Pickens, a supervisor in the hardware department, called 911 and tried to shield Atkins from Bolton. Atkins and Busch-Pickens then tried to flee, but Bolton ultimately shot both women in the head, police said. Bolton then killed himself with a shot in the mouth.
Aug. 20, 2007: Ricardo Williams, 37, walked into Staveley Services in DeKalb — which does oil, fuel and coolant testing — and shot his wife, Leslie Williams. Ricardo Williams then turned the gun on himself in what was ruled a murder-suicide.
Jan. 12, 2010: Dressed in camouflage, Jesse James Warren, 60, drove to Penske Truck Rental in unincorporated Cobb County and opened fire, killing three men and critically wounding two others, police said. The victims were four employees and a customer. Warren, who had lost his job at Penske the previous summer, surrendered without incident. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Warren, whose mental state is now being evaluated.
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