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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2001)
r Page 6B NEWS Tuesday, February 6,J THE BATTALION Man opens fire on former co-workers, kills himself MELROSE PARK, Ill. (AP) — A factory worker who got caught steal ing from his employer forcedhis way into the suburban Chicago engine plant Monday and opened fire one day before he was to report to prison. He killed five people, including him self, and wounded four others. William D. Baker, 66, showed up at the Navistar International plant with an arsenal of weapons in a golf bag and made his way through the vast building, blasting away with an AK-47 assault rifle, police said. Em ployees scattered in terror. He shot seven people, three of them fatally, in an engineering area, then went into an office, where he killed one more person and then shot himself, police said. Baker had been scheduled to sur render today to serve a five-month federal sentence for conspiracy to commit theft from an interstate ship ment. He pleaded guilty last June, six years after he was fired. Martin Reutimann, a 24-year-old engineer, was sitting at his desk when he heard gunfire about 10 a.m. “I heard somebody yell. There’s a guy in the center aisle with a gun! ’ ” Reutimann said, referring to the long hallway where engines are tested. Re utimann said he did not believe it at first, then saw people running past him. He grabbed his coat and cellular phone and dialed 911. When a security guard tried to stop him. Baker put a .38-caliber re volver to her side and forced his way into the plant, police said. Once inside the plant, Baker fired the assault rifle, police said. He also carried a shotgun and a .30-caliber hunting rifle in addition to the re volver, police said. They were not sure I heard someone yell, 'There's a guy in the center aisle with a gun!' ” Martin Reutimann shooting witness whether those weapons were used. The plant, about 15 miles from company headquarters in down town Chicago, employs about 1,400 people. Navistar identified three of the dead as Baker; Daniel Dorsch, 52, a supervisor in the engine lab; and Robert Wehrheim, 47, a lab techni cian. Two of the slain were not iden tified at the request of their families. Of the wounded, one was in criti cal condition: Carl Swanson, 45, who was shot in the abdomen. Baker was a tool room attendant from suburban Carol Stream who had worked at the plant for 39 years before he was fired in 1994. According to his plea agreement, Baker admitted helping a fellow plant employee steal diesel engines and components worth $195,400. He used his forklift to hoist the en gines onto a truck driven by the oth er employee. The thefts began in the fall of 1993 and stopped the next spring. Baker was sentenced Nov. 7. He had faced five months of house arrest after his prison term and had been or dered to repay the $ 195,400. The U.S. Attorney’s office also said Baker pleaded guilty in 1998 to a sex charge involving a family member under 17. He was placed on probation. The shooting comes six weeks af ter seven people were shot to death at a Wakefield, Mass., Internet consult ing company, Edgewater Technolo gy Inc. Software tester Michael Mc Dermott is charged with murder in the Dec. 26 rampage. Authorities said the shooting may have stemmed from an Internal Revenue Service or der to seize part of his wages to repay back taxes. . Navistar is the nation’s second- biggest producer of heavy-duty trucks, which it sells under the In ternational brand. It also manufac tures mid-sized trucks, school bus es and diesel engines, which it also sells to Ford and other truck mak ers.The Melrose Park plant makes engines. Horsing around Tiffany Pate, a senior animal science major, takes a sample of milk from Candy Asset at the Horse Center on George Bush Drive on BERNARDO GARZA/Tm-: Battalion Monday. The sample will undergo a test strip that will help determine how close Candy is to giving birth. Election in Israel ends toda News in Brief Train collision injures riders ■ SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A slow-moving Amtrak passenger train rear- ended a freight train Monday, injuring 61 peo ple, four critically. Officials would not comment on what caused the crash. The eastbound Amtrak train had just left the Syra cuse station when it hit the back end of the 92-car CSX freight train, also eastbound, in an industri al area north of the city, said CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan. The five-car Amtrak train was headed from Ni agara Falls to New York City with 98 passengers and four crew members, Amtrak said. Reagan has 90th birthday LOS ANGELES (AP) — Twelve years after leaving the White House with plans to spend his sunset years chopping wood and riding horses, Ronald Rea gan celebrates his 90th birthday as a recluse bat tling old age, Alzheimer’s disease and a broken hip. Reagan’s birthday Tuesday will be a sub dued celebration at the former president’s Bel- Air home, where he is re covering from surgery to repair the hip he broke Jan. 12 in a fall. The former movie star is one of only three presidents to reach 90 — John Adams and Herbert Hoover are the others. JERUSALEM (AP)—Ariel Sharon was poised Mon day for a stunning political comeback, holding a 20-point lead in the polls over Prime Minister Ehud Barak on the eve of Israel’s election — a vote seen as a referendum on Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians. Barak warned that Sharon would plunge Israel into war with its neighbors, but many voters — fatigued by the five-month Palestinian uprising against Israel — ap peared either apathetic or swayed by Sharon’s mantra of “peace with security.” Jerusalem travel agent Anat Azoulay, 27, said she would not vote Tuesday. “Barak is not good. We are not in a safe situation. Every day someone is killed,” Azoulay said, adding: “Sharon, he will make war again.” Her friend Liat Sherf, 25, an Israeli living in a Jewish neighborhood in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, said she backed Sharon because she fears Barak will give part of the city to the Palestinians. “He (Sharon) can save what is left. Jerusalem will not be separated,” Sherf said. Polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and close at 10 p.m., when both major TV stations are planning to announce projected results based on exit polls of a sample of 50,000 voters. Violence flared anew during the countdown tc election. An Israeli soldier was killed in a gun battle' Palestinians near the Rafah border crossing between (J and Egypt. In response, Israel shut down the Palestrj airport in Gaza and the Rafah crossing. A fire fight erupted in the West Bank town of Hebron. Islamic militants threatened bomb attacks in Tel and one of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s lieuten in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti, said Tuet would be a “day of rage,” with large-scale demons) tions against Israel. “The message we want to send to the Israeli su fers step with the demonstrations is that the uprising willcoi* static ue, regardless of who the prime minister of Israel dain St Barghouti said. lie, wf Sharon, 72, has been riding a wave of disappointn®ic’s is with Barak’s leadership, appealing to Israelis upset» n H the the prime minister’s insistence on making concessi( 00 ^ e( i; -for peace while Palestinian violence continues. tte atm< Pledging security first and peace talks only afteraK^g^ is restored, Sharon has opposed Barak’s difastojk «y 0 » Marl e Ban Waite Palestinians, including a state in almost all Bank and Gaza Strip and parts of Jerusalem. VaGontiM Portrait Special! s? CNC PAotograpMes das a fan romantic gift Bdacfi and WAite prints witA "spot coCoring" OttCy $54.95* 'v’ "jMeCtidag gaggloH and 1-5x7 a**d wMta portrait vvitA spot eoOoriH# ^7 CaQ(! today for appointment and cCotAing ideas 9?9’S e t6~217 t t Gender Issues Educational Enhancement Grant For information and applications visit 211A YMCA or http://studentHfe.tamu.edu/gies/Women/wdrgrant.htm. Grant requests should not exceed $250, and should be of clear and direct benefit to Texas A&M students with regard to gender issues. All students currently enrolled at Texas A&M University and University-recognized organizations are eligible to apply for a Gender Issues Education Services grant. Applications are available and will be due February 9, 2001. Announcement of wlnner(s) will be made February 23, 2001. 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