6 Die, 8 Injured in Shooting at Mississippi Lockheed Plant

Dozens of employees at the aircraft parts plant frantically ran for cover after the gunman, dressed in a black T-shirt and camouflage pants, started firing during a morning break. As many as eight people were wounded in the nation's deadliest workplace shooting in 2 1/2 years.

``At first I thought it was something falling on the ground. Then I walked to the aisle and saw him aiming his gun. I took off. Everybody took off,'' said Booker Steverson, who was helping assemble airplane parts when he heard the first shot.

The gunman was identified as Doug Williams, an assembler at the plant in this city of 40,000 near the Alabama line. Exactly what set him off was not immediately clear. But Steverson said Williams was known as a racist who did not like blacks.

``When I first heard about it, he was the first thing that came to my mind,'' said Jim Payton, who is retired from the plant but had worked with Williams for about a year.

He said Williams had talked about wanting to kill people. ``I'm capable of doing it,'' Payton quoted Williams as saying.

One of those killed was Lanette McCall, a black woman who had worked at the plant 15 years. Her husband, Bobby McCall, said she expected Williams to harm someone someday.

``She said he made a threat against black people,'' a distraught McCall said.

Nevertheless, Sheriff Billy Sollie said it appeared Williams fired at random with the shotgun and the semiautomatic rifle. ``There was no indication it involved race or gender as far as his targets were concerned,'' Sollie said.

The sheriff said he had no information on whether the gunman had been in trouble with his bosses. He said Williams had attended a meeting Tuesday morning with other employees, some of whom were later shot.

``We are not sure if those killed were friend or foe,'' the sheriff said.

Law officers made vehicles go through checkpoints outside the plant at midday as about two dozen people waited to learn the fate of their loved ones.

Some of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition.

The shooting stunned residents of Meridian, whose economy is largely dependent on the military. It is home to the Lockheed plant, a naval air station and an Air National Guard training center.

``We know one another, almost everyone knows someone who works in the building, or has a relative who works in the building,'' said Craig Hitt, president of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors.

The Rev. Kathy Spells pleaded for racial unity the city mourns its losses. ``It's time to get together and pray and get this racist thing over with,'' Spells said.

It was the nation's deadliest workplace shooting since a software tester in Wakefield, Mass., killed seven people the day after Christmas in 2000.

Officials at the Meridian plant declined to comment, and a Lockheed Martin national spokeswoman was unable to immediately provide details.

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said: ``Mississippi's family grieves today for this senseless tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those lost.''

The Meridian plant employs about 150 people and builds parts for C-130J Hercules transport planes and vertical stabilizers for F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

Lockheed Martin is the biggest defense contractor in the United States. The corporation had sales of $24 billion in 2001. It employs about 125,000 people.