(Reuters) – An employee of a coffee-dispenser manufacturer shot and killed two co-workers and wounded a third on Friday at the company’s warehouse in Springfield, Illinois, and was later found dead, apparently of suicide, in his own vehicle, police said.
The shooting was reported at about 11 a.m. Central time at the Bunn-O-Matic plant, Springfield police chief Kenny Winslow told reporters. Officers arriving on the scene found two men shot dead inside the warehouse and a woman critically wounded in the parking lot.
The gunman, who had fled the scene prior to the arrival of police, was later found dead inside his vehicle in a neighboring county, Winslow said at a televised news briefing after the incident.
The police chief said the motive for the shooting remained under investigation, but he said the suspect, identified as Michael Collins, 48, was an active employee at the facility and was believed to have known all three of his victims.
At least 100 other employees were inside the warehouse when the gunman opened fire with a handgun, Winslow said.
The president and chief operating officer of Bunn-O-Matic, the maker of beverage dispenser machines, said it was “the saddest possible day for our company, naturally, particularly in light of all the other troubles that are among us and around us.”
The company is based in Springfield, the capital of Illinois, with a plant in Creston, Iowa. Its founder is credited with inventing the flat-bottom fluted coffee filter and the pour-over drip coffee brewer.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
