A Wal-Mart distribution center employee who had shot and wounded his supervisor fatally shot himself after exiting the giant Dinwiddie County facility and firing on two sheriff's deputies, the sheriff said this afternoon.
The officers were not hit by the shots and did not have time to return fire before the man fatally shot himself in the chest, said Sheriff D.T. Adams.
The shipping department supervisor was shot in the leg and is expected to recover from her injuries, Adams told reporters at a news conference.
Adams did not immediately identify the two and said investigators were still trying to determine the motive. He also said it was too early to say whether the man who fired the shots had any troubled job history.
The man, 32, had worked at the distribution center off U.S. 460 for nine years, Adams said. The supervisor, 40, has been there 18 years.
Adams said sheriff's personnel responded within three minutes of a 12:09 call of a shooting at the distribution center. The first deputies who arrived saw the man standing just outside the employee entrance of the building and had taken cover when he fired two shots, missing them, and then shot himself. He died after being taken to a hospital, Adams said.
The shooting occurred after the man had returned from lunch, Adams said. He walked to his work area in the rear of the building and fired one shot at the supervisor before leaving the facility.
Detectives were still inspecting the scene outside the main entrance as tractor-trailers and all other traffic was being turned away from entering the center earlier this afternoon. Family members of employees said workers were being sent home early from a shift that generally did not end until 3:30 p.m.
Adams said about 250 of the plant's approximate 600 workers over all shifts were in the building at the time of the shootings.
(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)
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