Shooting In Hesston, Kansas, Leaves Several Dead

A shooting Thursday afternoon left several people dead at Excel Industries in Hesston, Kansas. According to local news station KWCH 12, the workplace shooting was reported a little after 5 p.m. Excel Industries, a lawn care equipment company, is a family-owned business north of Wichita. The business, as well as a nearby college, were both put on lockdown after the shooting, though those have since been lifted.

Helicopters descended on the area to take victims to nearby hospitals. Current reports have listed two people dead and four injured. Via Christi Hospital St. Francis, which is 30 miles away in Wichita, confirmed to NBC News that it was taking at least three patients from the shooting. According to KSN, the patients were in various levels of conditions, from fair to serious.

In a press conference, Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said that it wasn't just a shooting at Excel Industries that left people injured. Walton said that there were multiple crime scenes, including a shooting of a man in a truck at an intersection, a shooting of a person at another intersection, a shooting in the parking lot of Excel Industries, and then the final shooting inside the Excel Industries building. Walton said that the suspect was an employee at Excel and has been killed by police. He also reported that up to 20 people may be injured.

KSN interviewed an Excel employee named Jordan, who said he saw a bunch of people running and yelling fire. "They started off saying fire and then we heard the gunshots, and it wasn’t fire," he told the news station. Jordan said he and the people he was with started running as well, hopped fences to get away, and that several of his friends had been injured and killed.

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