2 Die In Pa. Plant Shooting

A disgruntled employee at a food service plant shot three of his managers, killing one who was on a conference call with the company president, and then shot himself Thursday, authorities said.

William Muth Jr., a 41-year-old warehouse worker at the U.S. Foodservice Inc. distribution center, was told to take the rest of the day off by his supervisor after a morning meeting with two of the victims but returned around 11:30 a.m., Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin said.

Muth shot his supervisor and the human resources manager with a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun as they were on a conference call and then walked down the hall and fired the gun through a wooden conference room door, hitting the vice president of operations in the face.

"I was on the telephone in the middle of a conference call with people in this office when I heard the gun shots through the phone," Jim Miller, CEO of the Columbia, Md.-based company told reporters outside the plant. "When I learned what happened, I left (Maryland) immediately."

Muth, who had worked at the plant for 12 years, then shot and killed himself. At least five shots were fired.

Earl A. "Sonny" Moritz, 48, of Allentown, the warehouse manager and the shooter's immediate supervisor, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The shooting "involved, we believe, a disciplinary action that was being taken by Mr. Moritz," Martin said.

John Leodler, 46, vice president of operations, and Human Resources Manager Timothy Kita, 37, were taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital, spokeswoman Tracey Micio said. Leodler was in stable condition and Kita, who was shot in the chest, was listed as critical.

"I think they're going to have to wait for the recovery of Mr. Leodler and Mr. Kita to shed some light on what occurred this morning," Martin said.

Allentown police brought in a bus as a shelter to provide counseling to plant employees. A group of crying employees gathered outside the building and gave each other hugs.

"They were well liked," a company truck driver, who declined to give his name, said about the three managers.

As for Muth: "I didn't hear anything good," the man said as he left the plant Thursday evening.

The company, formerly known as J.P. Foodservice, distributes food and related products to more than 130,000 restaurant, hotel and institutional foodservice customers and employs 12,000 people nationwide. It is the nation's second largest company in the $140 billion-a-year food-distribution business.

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