Nine people are dead in a workplace shooting at a family-owned beer and wine wholesaler, police said.
Sources said Omar S. Thornton, 34, was a driver for Hartford Distributors and was described by a Teamsters Union official as a recent hire and a “disciplinary problem.”
“The union was bringing him in to meet with the company to remedy the problem,” said John Hollis, a Teamsters official. “He started shooting.”
Thornton shot a number of people and then shot himself with a .223 caliber semiautomatic rifle as police approached and is dead, sources said. Two people were shot outside the building and five were shot inside, police sources said.
Hollis declined to describe the nature of the disciplinary problem, and he said he wasn’t certain if the meeting had taken place when the shooting started. A law enforcement source said Thornton had been suspected of stealing from the business.
Joanne Hannah, who lives in the Enfield neighborhood where Thornton lived until about a month ago, said her daughter Kristi had dated Thornton for eight years. Thornton, who is black, had complained about being racially harassed at work. Thornton brought his complaints to his superiors, who did nothing about it, she said her daughter told her.
Steve Hollander, a member of the family that founded and owns the company, is one of the wounded, a police source said. He was shot in the neck, the source said.
Another shooting victim was identified as Bryan Cirigliano, 51, of Newington, by a man at Hartford Hospital who said he was Cirigliano’s brother. Bryan Cirigliano is the president of the Teamsters Local 1035 that represents drivers at Hartford Distributors.
Another victim was identified as Victor James, who died at Hartford Hospital, officials said.
Gloria Wilson, 86, said her son Victor would have turned 60 on Aug. 30.
James, of Windsor, had two adult daughters and four grandchildren.
Wilson said she had already heard about the shootings when her other son called with the news that Victor James was dead.
“I just got praying he wasn’t one of them, and he was,” she said.
“There wasn’t a better family man,” Wilson said.
James was planning to retire from Hartford Distributors this year after working for the company as a truck driver for 30 years. He planned to work around his home and tinker with an old car he had, Wilson said.
James grew up in Providence and Cranston, R.I. He had one brother, Robert James, Wilson said.
“He loved his children and his grandchildren,” she said. “He’d take the grandchildren out for movies. He devoted his weekends to them.”
Two school buses were brought in to transport employees away about 9:30 a.m. They were brought to Manchester High School, where family members gathered.
The shooting occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. in a facility of the beer and wine distribution company, one of the state’s largest. At the time, there were about 35 or 40 people in the office and warehouse, said Brett Hollander, the director of marketing for the company.
“Our shifts were just changing,” said Hollander, who said the shooter was an employee.
“There are definitely some people that are shot, some people that are dead,” Hollander said, speaking in a tense and shaken voice about 8:30 a.m. Employees were in a warehouse across the street when police entered the building where the shooter was located.
The East Hartford police tactical response team was training at 7:33 a.m., when the department received a general call for help, said Officer Hugo Benettieri, police spokesman. As a result, the neighboring department was one of the first police agencies at the scene. The team helped with “building entry,” he said.
Thornton received two speeding tickets, in February 2007 and December 2008, that led to DMV suspending his commercial driver’s license for three months, according to DMV records.
Hartford Hospital was treating the only three victims of the shooting that were hospitalized, officials said. One died on his way into surgery.
Shortly after the shooting, a thick column of black smoke could be seen coming from the building. It later turned to white, then stopped as firefighters were on the scene. The fire was caused by a forklift that tipped over when its operator was shot, a law enforcement source said.
A number of bomb squad vehicles were seen entering the property about 9:20 a.m. A state police dispatcher said they were there to check the suspect’s car.
Hartford Distributors is at 131 Chapel Road, near the border of South Windsor and Manchester in the area Buckland Hills Mall and Interstate 291. The company is one of the state’s largest beer and wine distributorships, carrying hundreds of brands. The company merged last year with Franklin Distributors, a South Windsor company. Employees are represented by the Teamsters union.
Hartford Distributors was founded by Jules Hollander, the father of the current president, Ross Hollander, and grandfather of Brett, the marketing chief, and Steve, who was reported to have been shot. The company was located on Tolland Street in East Hartford for many years before moving to Manchester about 15 years ago, said U.S. Rep. John B. Larson.
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