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
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Palestinians, including a state in almost all
Bank and Gaza Strip and parts of Jerusalem.
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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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