HESSTON, Kan. —A man who wounded three people before storming into the central Kansas factory where he worked and shooting 15 others, killing three of them, had just been served a protection from abuse order that likely triggered the attack, a sheriff said Friday.
The attack Thursday evening at the Excel Industries lawnmower parts plant in Hesston ended when a police officer killed the attacker during a shootout, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said. He described the officer Friday as a “tremendous hero” because there were still 200 or 300 other people in the factory and that the “shooter wasn’t done by any means.”
“Had that Hesston officer not done what he did, this would be a whole lot more tragic,” Walton said.
The sheriff identified the gunman as Cedric Ford, a 38-year-old plant worker who had several convictions in Florida over the last decade, including for burglary, grand theft, fleeing from an officer, aggravated fleeing, carrying a concealed weapon, all from Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
