Associated Press
CONYERS, Ga. — A contract worker was arrested at Alabama bus station Friday, hours after officials say he shot and killed a fellow worker in a suburban Atlanta factory.
Rockdale County Sheriff Eric Levett described the shooting as “workplace violence,” but couldn’t say for sure whether Cameron Golden, 18, specifically set out to kill victim Taurus Andrews. He said Golden is charged with murder.
“We don’t even know if Mr. Andrews was a target” Levett said. “We don’t if Mr. Golden was upset with Dart Container, was he upset with any particular person there? We just don’t know those answers as of yet.”
The shooting came at shift change at the Dart Container Corp. in Conyers, sparking panic among the 300 or so employees. Levett said investigators believe Golden entered the plant, shot Andrews and then left in the five-minute window before police arrived at the factory, which makes plastic food and beverage containers.
“He’d done what he needed to do, I guess, and fled,” Levett said.
Andrews was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Investigators haven’t determined whether shots were fired at any other people, the sheriff said.
Levett said authorities were able to track Golden and said he was arrested at a Greyhound bus station in Birmingham, Alabama, by federal and local officials, including agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The sheriff said Rockdale County was sending investigators to Alabama to question Golden and was also interviewing his relatives. Levett said officials aren’t sure whether Golden drove himself to Alabama or had help.
Deputies loaded remaining employees onto school buses while searching the building and took workers to a nearby church where investigators interviewed them and counselors were made available. Dart, a privately held company based in Mason, Michigan, said the factory would remain closed until further notice.
The shooting sparked alarm in Conyers, a suburb about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of downtown Atlanta, where the plant sits along a busy highway near Interstate 20.
Nearby schools were put on lockdown as a precaution. Authorities also shut down a gas station next door and told an employee to stay inside, said Dion Spencer, who works there. He said police swarmed the area.
“All I know was there was a lot of them out here,” Spencer said.
Dustin Giles, the assistant store manager at the nearby Sonic Drive-In fast food restaurant, said he received multiple robocalls to “stay inside, lock your doors, a shooter is at large.”
“We got here about 7. Right about the time we got here is when we started seeing police cars, EMS and fire trucks,” Giles said. “We thought something was on fire.”