Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights
It's too early to tell what led Omar S. Thornton to go to the beer distributor warehouse outside Hartford, Conn., where he worked and to gun down nine workers before turning the rifle on himself.
Initial reports from the labor union that represented Thornton, 34, which say that he was a "disciplinary problem," that he was racially harassed at work and supervisors did nothing to remedy the situation, shine a bright light on the potentially explosive situations in our modern workplaces.
Thankfully, most workplace conflicts are resolved with quiet agreements, financial settlements and dismissed employees. However, homicide in the workplace is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States.
In these times of economic turmoil, when many of us are worried where the next mortgage payment is coming from, it's easy to see how office slights, real or perceived, can erupt into violence. Add race to the mix and you have the recipe for a disaster.
For example, when Lockheed Martin employee Doug Williams taunted and made death threats to black co-workers in 2001, folks around him looked the other way. In July 2003, Williams went on a shooting spree in a Meridian,Miss., plant that left six people dead including four black workers.
On average, one U.S. worker is killed and 25 more seriously injured every week in violent assaults by past or current workmates.
To tell the truth, with these growing tensions and easy access to high-powered weapons across the nation (thanks, NRA lobby) I'm actually surprised and thankful we don't see more cases like today's shooting at Hartford Distributors.
So far, there seem to be few hints to suggest Thornton was capable of an act so horrific. Apart from two speeding tickets, he appeared to steer clear of serious criminal charges. Thornton had filed for bankruptcy in 2000 under the name of Thornton Omar Sharriff.
As the family and friends of both the victims and shooter emerge from their shock and grief, a fuller picture of what triggered the massacre will emerge.
But that doesn't mean that employers and workplace managers have to delay their efforts to watch for warning signs from troubled employees and make their offices safer.