Six Injured at Georgia FedEx Plant

KENNESAW, Georgia (Reuters) - A FedEx Corp package handler armed with a shotgun opened fire at a shipping facility in suburban Atlanta early on Tuesday, injuring six people before killing himself, apparently with his own weapon, police and hospital officials said. Three people were in critical condition, two of them with life-threatening injuries, after being shot by the unidentified gunman just before 6 a.m. EDT at a FedEx warehouse near the airport in Kennesaw, Georgia, about 30 miles northwest of Atlanta, police and hospital officials said.


FedEx employee Liza Aiken told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she was correcting addresses on packages when she saw a 19-year-old colleague dressed all in black and armed with a knife, gun and a cartridge belt strapped across this chest.


"He had bullets strapped to his chest like Rambo," she told the newspaper. "He looked like he was heading into war."


Authorities searching the building after the incident found a Molotov cocktail that appeared to have been left behind by the gunman, said Cobb County Police spokesman Michael Bowman.

                                                                             

FedEx Employees and family members gather a skating rink following a shooting at the FedEx facility in Georgia.

Aiken said she previously had reported the man to her superiors after he pointed a work laser at her eye. Michael Hogland, a driver at the facility, told the paper his boss called him early Tuesday and said a security guard was among the shooting victims.

Law enforcement did not immediately identify the shooter, who worked as a package handler, said Cobb County Police spokesman Mike Bowman. No motive was given for the attack. The six patients taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta all had multiple gunshot wounds that appeared to be from a shotgun, Dr. Michael Nitzken said at a news conference.

Two men, 28 and 22 years old, as well as a 52-year-old woman were listed in critical condition. Another 28-year-old man was stable, while a 42-year-old woman and 19-year-old man had been treated and were being released, Nitzken said.

Hundreds of police from multiple agencies converged on the scene after the shooting, and employees escorted from the facility in a bus tearfully reunited with family members at a nearby skating rink.
A FedEx spokeswoman extended condolences to those affected by the shooting.


"The situation is now stabilized, and we are focused on the needs of our team members and cooperating with the law enforcement investigation of this tragedy," said company spokeswoman Shea Leordeanu.

Clivan Bundy Admits to Racial Comments

Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy speaks with a supporter (Reuters)

Less than a week ago, Nevada cattle rancher Cliven Bundy's standoff with federal authorities over unpaid grazing fees was treated as political gold by some conservative politicians and media personalities. The figure of the rugged Westerner standing up to armed agents of the state seemed a perfect opportunity to highlight long-standing complaints about the size and scope of the federal government.

But stories showing Bundy in a less flattering light exploded on Thursday after he was quoted in a New York Times profile questioning whether African-Americans were better off as slaves.
“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” Bundy said during one of his daily press conferences. “[B]ecause they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do? They abort their young children; they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”


After the story quickly went viral, Bundy was forced to address his remarks during a press conference on Thursday afternoon. Bundy said he is opposed to slavery. "I don’t believe in any of that type of stuff," he said, but he also used the word "Negro" or "Negros" at least a half-dozen times during his brief remarks. "They’re not slaves anymore," Bundy added. "But they seem to be slaves to the welfare system.”


"It really don’t matter to me if you twist my words out," Bundy said at the end of his press conference. "It matters that my heart goes out to the people of this world, and they understand what I stand for."


Bundy initially denied the comments in an interview with radio host Alex Jones. But after video of his full comments surfaced, he doubled down on his remarks on Thursday, saying in a radio interview with Peter Schiff:

“That’s exactly what I said. I said I’m wondering if they’re better off under government subsidy, and their young women are having the abortions and their young men are in jail, and their older women and their children are standing, sitting out on the cement porch without nothing to do, you know, I’m wondering: Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were slaves, and they was able to have their family structure together, and the chickens and garden, and the people had something to do? And so, in my mind I’m wondering, are they better off being slaves, in that sense, or better off being slaves to the United States government, in the sense of the subsidies. I’m wondering. That’s what. And the statement was right. I am wondering.”

After a week of accusations that the federal government had overplayed its hand by sending armed officials from the Bureau of Land Management to seize cattle from Bundy’s property in the dispute, critics of Bundy and his armed supporters seemingly seized the upper hand.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, resumed the offensive, calling Bundy a “hateful racist” in a statement released on Thursday and urging Republican leaders to distance themselves from him.


“For their part, national Republican leaders could help show a united front against this kind of hateful, dangerous extremism by publicly condemning Bundy,” Reid said in the statement.
A number of Republican officials, including Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, have begun doing exactly that, the Washington Post reports.


“I wholeheartedly disagree with him,” Paul said in a statement, calling Bundy’s remarks “offensive.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus also condemned the comments, saying, "Bundy's comments are completely beyond the pale. Both highly offensive and 100% wrong on race."


A spokesman for Republican Nevada Sen. Dean Heller echoed Paul’s comments, saying, “Sen. Heller completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.”


Bundy explained his comments by saying he was just trying out a Glenn Beck-style thought experiment. Later in the same press conference, he praised the family lives of workers, presumably Latin American, who are living illegally in the U.S.

“Now, let me talk about the Spanish people. You know, I understand that they come over here against our Constitution and cross our borders. But they are here and they are people. And I’ve worked side by side with a lot of them. Don’t tell me they don’t work and don’t tell me they don’t pay taxes," Bundy said. "And don’t tell me they don’t have better family structures than most of us white people. ... We need to have those people join us and be with us, not come to our party.”