Ferrill, 51, reportedly showed up at the plant where he'd worked with a gun on a silencer and murdered five colleagues before killing himself
An electrician who shot five colleagues dead at the beer plant where he worked was named as Anthony Ferrill. Ferrill, 51, showed up at the MillerCoors facility in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday afternoon wearing his uniform and carrying a silenced gun.
He used a colleague’s pass to get into the building before opening five and killing five co-workers, then turned the gun on himself. Ferrill is reported to have been a long-time employee at the facility, and had worked there as an electrician for over 20 years.
An unnamed colleague told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that Ferrill believed himself to have been the victim of racist discrimination, and frequently argued with another colleague, who was also an electrician. Police have not yet shared a possible motive for the shooting.
That colleague told the Sentinel that Ferrill would anger his colleague by watching movies on his phone during his shift. Ferrill is said to have believed that colleagues from Miller were coming into his home, bugging his computer and moving furniture around.
But former colleague Phillip Raunch, who worked with Ferrill for 15 years until his retirement last April, spoke highly of the killer.
Raunch said: ‘He was a very good electrician, a very good worker, and I couldn’t say anything bad about the guy.’
MillerCoors CEO Gavin Hattersley also said that Ferrill was an ‘active’ employee at the plant, amid unconfirmed reports he had been fired on the day of the massacre.
Ferrill opened fire at the sprawling complex which houses 1,400 employees across manufacturing facilities and corporate offices.
It will remain closed for the remainder of the week in the wake of the tragedy. Hattersley said: ‘There are no words to express the deep sadness many of us are feeling right now.
‘I am on my way to Milwaukee now because in the hours and days ahead, the most important thing is that we support and care for each other.’
