The plant where a deadly shooting left five people dead on Friday will re-open, the company’s CEO announced on Saturday afternoon.
During a press conference, Mueller Water Products CEO Scott Hall said that the company will provide grief resources to employees, including counsellors, beginning on Sunday afternoon.
Hall also said that employees will be back with pay beginning on Monday, but said that he is unsure of whether production will resume on that date. The company is working out final details of a “go-live program” to get the facility back up and running after Friday’s fatal shooting.
The company also confirmed on Saturday that Gary Martin, the gunman that shot and killed five employees at the Henry Pratt Company facility, was fired on Friday for a “culmination of many workplace violations,” and after a meeting in which his employment was terminated, he pulled out a gun and opened fire.
Hall also said that the company performed a background check on Martin when he was hired in 2004, but that the check did not reveal the gunman’s previous felony conviction in Mississippi.
The company pledged that it will continue to work with law enforcement agencies as they investigate the shooting.
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“We have pledged to continue to work closely with all local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies involved,” the company said in a statement. “We are grateful to them for their swift and tremendous response efforts.”
Hall said that active shooter protocols were in place at the company, and when shots were fired, the building went into lockdown in accordance with those procedures.
“They went into lockdown and remained there at police’s discretion for quite some time,” Hall said.
A total of three employees were killed in the room where Martin was fired, according to Aurora police. Two more victims were killed in other areas of the facility before the gunman was shot and killed during a brief exchange of gunfire with police.
