CHICAGO, Illinois - 7 people were shot and killed after a gunman on the verge of losing his job opened fire at six co-workers at a storage warehouse in Chicago on Wednesday, according to authorities. Cook County Hospital reported that the gunman and six other unidentified people died. It’s possible the death toll could rise, but police and the city medical examiner’s office have declined to confirm the number of fatalities or provide identities of the dead.
The shootings started at 8:45 a.m. (9:45 a.m. ET) in an industrial area near the former Comiskey Park on the city’s southwest side. Authorities got a call around that time that a person had been shot ? possibly by a co-worker at the Windy City Core Supply Inc. The EMS Plan I (mass casualty incident) brought at least five ambulances and paramedic supervisors, dozens of police, and special police teams to the scene of the shooting in a warehouse complex.
Police spokesman David Bayless said the suspect was “on the brink of being terminated” from his job at the facility, which had once been a storehouse for auto parts. An intense investigation is underway at present to ascertain the facts surrounding what is being called a “multiple shooting” by Chicago emergency service agencies.
Bayless said Chicago police stormed the building about an hour after the man first starting shooting at fellow workers. Police tried to negotiate with the man but he refused. “Shots were fired at and by police” in two bursts leading up to the police going into the building, he said. Police cordoned off the area, creating traffic jams involving semi-trucks and other large vehicles.
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