"called 911 to inform officers that he had a firearm...."

 

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has reported on workplace violence in our industry. We have done this to shine light on a hazard that some companies are reluctant to address. As this incident shows us workplace violence can occur within our outside our factory fences:

Charges have been filed against a man who led authorities on a pursuit earlier this week. A man from Midwest USA, was charged with one count of Flee and Elude, a third-degree felony, and one count of Receiving Stolen Property, a fourth-degree felony.

The local County Sheriff's Office states that on March 23rd at approximately 12:21 PM, deputies were alerted of a vehicle pursuit approaching the county involving the (nearby) County Sheriff's Office. The vehicle in the pursuit was reported to have been stolen.

The pursuit went through different areas of (another nearby) County, where several properties were damaged by the suspect vehicle, and further damage caused to highway fences, winter wheat, and some minor damage to Sheriff cruisers.

During the pursuit, the driver of the vehicle, (name omitted of individual being pursued by police), called 911 to inform officers that he had a firearm. The sherriff's office states that he was threatening to shoot police and the other occupant of the vehicle if the police did not back off.

Stop sticks were deployed by multiple agencies during the pursuit at multiple locations.

The pursuit came to an end in a field behind the (aluminium company name) then exited his vehicle and fled on foot for a short distance before he was located and placed into custody.

The female passenger of the stolen vehicle also fled on foot but was later detained. She was released from custody later on.

(the individual) was booked into the (local) County Jail, and also appeared for a virtual arraignment Thursday afternoon.

Five police departments were involved in the pursuit.

The incident remains under investigation.

Though no aluminium workers, contractors, nor visitors were involved in this incident. They could have. We have posted incidents where violence entered our plants. We have posted incidents where violent threats, assaults of aluminium workers, murder of aluminium workers have occurred. That is why we are posting this incident. This individual who claimed to have a firearm could have ran into the aluminium company. There is a very good chance that the aluminium company did not know about the police apprehension until much later.

We believe every incident we post can be a learning experience for an aluminium company. Some possible questions that management should ask: 

• Do our company, our plant have an active shooter program. 
• Do we have a system in place to warn our workers to evacuate ?

Please comment.