Hartford Distributors Shooting, August 2010

Nov. 29, 2017
In an ironic circumstance, the attack committed in August of 2010 at the Hartford Distributors warehouse almost perfectly mimicked a common scenario used to train officers for active shooter response.

Almost six months after the shooting at University of Alabama at Huntsville, a former employee of Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Connecticut, returned to a warehouse where he had once worked and killed eight coworkers before committing suicide. The attack perpetrated by Omar Sheriff Thornton is almost the exact scenario taught in many active shooter response classes since the year 2000 (when such started after the public outcry following police response to Columbine). Mass shooter enters place of business, armed but not visibly so. After whatever targeting event happens, s/he secures the weapon(s) and begins shooting. Police respond and the shooter barricades himself in an office or bathroom or some other small room. Before being arrested by the police and with little attempt to even communicate with them, he commits suicide.

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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.

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