Office employees overpower armed ex-worker
MELINDA DALTON, RECORD STAFF
CAMBRIDGE
With a hunting knife strapped to his leg and a shotgun in his hands, a 28-year-old Kitchener man walked into the Cambridge office of his former employer Wednesday and pointed his weapon.
The ordeal lasted only minutes, but could have turned tragic in an instant.
“You don’t think it could happen here,” said Jaime Rosa, co-owner of the trucking company, New Way Transportation. “You hear about it happening down at Virginia Tech–you hear about it other places, but you never think it’s going to happen here.”
Thanks in part to the quick thinking of Rosa and his employees, the incident at the Pinebush Road business Wednesday didn’t end in violence and chaos.
It ended with Rosa kicking the weapon out of the armed man’s hand and, along with another employee, holding the suspect down until police arrived.
It started around noon on Wednesday, when the man — who hadn’t worked for the trucking company since late 2006 — walked into the office to try and set up a formal meeting, Waterloo regional police Insp. Bryan Larkin said.
He was told to come back later in the day, he said.
“When he returned again at 2:30, he entered the business and he was carrying a shotgun,” Larkin said.
“A number of employees became concerned and a verbal altercation took place.”
There were only a few people in the office at the time — the majority of New Way employees are out on the road at mid-day.
But there were a few people in the office when the man walked in, aiming his weapon at at least one person, police said.
Rosa and his staff took action, confronting the suspect and disarming him while trying to hold him until police arrived.
The suspect grabbed a hunting knife he had attached to his leg, but Rosa and another employee were able to pin him down until officers arrived and arrested the man without incident.
They seized a shotgun and ammunition, though police couldn’t confirm yesterday evening if the gun was loaded at the time of the man’s arrest.
He has been charged with forcible confinement and assault causing bodily harm in addition to a number of weapons-related charges.
He was remanded into custody and is scheduled to appear in court again on May 14.
May 11, 2007
Copyright © 2007 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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