Feb. 26 (UPI) —
Six people died, including the suspected gunman, in a shooting Wednesday at a Molson Coors campus in Milwaukee, local authorities said.Milwaukee police Chief Alfonso Morales said the police department received a report of an active shooting at 2:08 p.m. When officers arrived on the scene, they found the suspected shooter, a 51-year-old man, dead of an apparent self-inflected gunshot wound.
Officers found five victims fatally shot, all adults who worked for the company. Officials didn’t release the names of the victims pending notification of next of kin.
“It’s a terrible day for Milwaukeeans and I pass on my condolences to the families,” Morales said during a briefing Wednesday evening.
He said the scene was no longer active.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said was on the scene earlier in the day, confirming multiple deaths. He urged people to stay away from the area.
“Six families … are grieving … because of this horrific act of this individual,” Barrett said later at the briefing. “This is a time for us to think about those families.”
President Donald Trump confirmed the death toll at the beginning of a news conference at the White House to discuss COVID-19.
“Our hearts break for them, we send our condolences,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing. Our hearts go out to the people of Wisconsin and their families.”
Molson Coors reported an active shooter on its Milwaukee campus around 2 p.m. and ordered employees to find a safe place to hide, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
The campus was placed on lockdown and other businesses in the area were also closed.
Police later tweeted that there was no active threat but it was still an “active scene.”
Molson Coors tweeted that it was working with the police.
“Our top priority is our employees and we’ll provide updates in conjunction with the police as we are able,” the company said.
During the evening news conference, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes hinted at a need for stronger gun control laws, calling Wednesday’s shooting “another American tragedy.”
“We shouldn’t accept this,” he said at the news conference. “We should never grow comfortable in the face of these repeated tragedies.
“We have to act to stop these preventable tragedies from happening.”
