4 of 5 Aurora police officers injured by gunfire in mass shooting have been released from hospital
By Megan Jones
| The Beacon-News |
Feb 17, 2019 | 6:30 PM
All but one of the five Aurora police officers who were injured by gunfire in Friday's mass shooting at a warehouse have been released from area hospitals.
The investigation into the workplace massacre continued Sunday as police interviewed additional witnesses and collected further information. Five people were killed after a factory worker at Henry Pratt Co. opened fire after he was told he was being fired from his job, police said. The five victims killed were all employees of the plant; the man identified by police as the gunman later died in a shootout with officers.
The police officer remaining hospitalized Sunday is 39 years old and suffered a gunshot wound to his lower extremity; he is in good condition, Aurora police Sgt. Bill Rowley said. The officer has 13 years of service with the Aurora Police Department, and police said in a statement Sunday they are hopeful for his release soon.
The names of the injured officers have not been released.
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Police were dispatched to the warehouse at 1:24 p.m. Friday, and officers arrived four minutes later. Officers almost immediately encountered Gary Martin, a 45-year-old with a history of violence, who was shooting from a window with a gun he wasn't legally entitled to carry. Questions remain about how Martin was able to buy and keep his weapon when his criminal background should have prohibited it.
Four other officers who were injured by gunfire — a 24-year-old with shrapnel wounds to the upper extremity, a 52-year-old officer shot in his upper extremity and two officers shot in the lower extremities, one 52 years old and one 53 — were all released from the hospital. A sixth officer suffered a minor injury while responding to the shooting; that injury wasn't directly tied to gunfire.
The department is providing wellness care for first responders, dispatchers, support staff and their families who were affected by Friday's shooting. Immediate care and counseling services are being provided throughout the weekend, and organized debriefings are scheduled for later this week, police said in a statement.
A witness to Friday's shooting said Martin had been called into a meeting to be fired, and as soon as that happened, he started shooting. Three people were killed at the meeting, and two others were killed elsewhere in the plant, police said.
Police identified the victims as Josh Pinkard, 37, of Oswego, the company's plant manager; Vicente Juarez, 54, of Oswego, a stockroom attendant and a forklift operator; Russell Beyer, 47, of Yorkville, a mold operator and the plant's union chairman; Clayton Parks, 32, of Elgin, the human resources manager; and Trevor Wehner, 21 of Sheridan, Ill., a human resources intern and Northern Illinois University senior who was spending his first day with the company.
Autopsy results confirmed Wehner, Beyer, Parks, Pinkard and Juarez died of multiple gunshot wounds, the Kane County coroner's office said Sunday morning.
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Autopsy results confirmed Martin also died of multiple gunshot wounds.
Rowley said police are still working on releasing 911 and radio communications related to the shooting, but they likely will not be released before Monday.
mejones@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MeganA_Jones