Factory Killer Had Anger Counseling

Doug Williams sat in a meeting with managers at his factory job, listening to them explain the importance of being honest and responsible in the workplace. Also on the agenda: getting along with co-workers, regardless of their sex or race.

But at some point during the meeting Williams had heard enough.

He walked out of the room, telling co-workers, "Y'all can handle this."

Minutes later, he returned with a shotgun and a rifle. He sprayed the room with shotgun blasts, killing two people, and then continued the rampage on the factory floor, leaving three more co-workers dead before taking his own life.

"He said, 'I told you about (expletive) with me,"' said co-worker Brenda Dubose, who was in the meeting.

Williams, a 48-year-old white man, had undergone anger counseling at least once in the past couple of years, frustrated because he thought black people had a leg up in society, co-workers said.

They said Williams was also angry that he had been passed over for promotions at the Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant where he had worked for 19 years. Co-workers said he kept "score" on whoever he thought was offending him.

Fellow employees also described him as a "hothead" who had used racial epithets and made threats against blacks.

Jinell Miller, whose husband was shot by Williams told CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann she wasn't surprised to learn the identity of his killer.

Her husband, she said "mentioned Doug several times, and that he was a very prejudiced man."

Another widower, Bobby McCall told Strassmann his wife Lynette McCall had filed complaints against Williams, and she also became one of his victims.

As recently as three weeks ago, some employees complained that Williams arrived at work wearing a white covering over his head that resembled a hood, Sollie said. Some employees found the covering offensive because it resembled a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Hubert Threatt, a union shop steward who had worked with Williams for 15 years, said other employees had expressed concerns to managers about Williams over the years. Threatt said company counselors came to the plant two years ago to work with Williams.

Threatt said Williams was generally quiet after the counseling but once told him: "One of these days, they're going to (expletive) me off and I'm going to come here and shoot some people."

Sheriff Billy Sollie said investigators were seeking Williams' personnel records and would not comment on any problems Williams may have had at work.

CBS' Strassmann, who questioned Lockheed Martin president Dain Hancock for details on the company's response to the complaints filed against Williams, said the executive literally backed away from his microphone to avoid a response. The company has not yet turned over Williams' record to local law enforcement.

Threatt was in the main factory building when he saw Williams with a rifle strapped to his back and the shotgun in his hands. He said he pleaded with a Williams not to shoot people.

"You could see something in his face. He snapped," Threatt said. "He said, `Get out of my way or I'll kill you, too.' He slung me aside with the gun. He turned away from me and started running."

In the next minute and a half, Threatt said Williams killed three co-workers at point-blank range on the plant floor.

Two other co-workers were already dead and others wounded in the annex building where the meeting was held. Nine people were hurt, including Dubose, who was shot in the hand. Several remained hospitalized Wednesday.

Dubose said 13 employees were in the annex seated around tables when Williams entered and started shooting.

"All of us just hit the floor," she said. "There was screaming, people falling over."

Eight of the 14 shooting victims were black, including four of the five fatalities.

"If you look at the racial makeup of those who were shot and those who were killed, you end up with almost a 50/50 split as far as white or black victims," Sollie said on CBS News' The Early show.

"ATF [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] did a search of his home yesterday, along with some of our team, and they did not find any material at his residence indicating he was associated or affiliated with any hate groups," Sollie said later in the day.

The shooting stunned residents of Meridian, a city of 40,000 near the Alabama line whose economy is largely dependent on the military. It is home to the Lockheed plant, a naval air station and an Air National Guard training center.

"We know one another, almost everyone knows someone who works in the building, or has a relative who works in the building," said Craig Hitt, president of the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors.

Williams and other employees were attending an annual business ethics meeting that the company requires of all its workers when he left. He returned with a 12-gauge shotgun, a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle and a bandolier of ammunition.

Police said Williams, dressed in a black T-shirt and camouflage pants, shot several of the meeting's participants in an annex next to the plant before moving on to the main factory, where he shot at least three others.

Several co-workers said they were not surprised when Williams was identified as the killer.

"When I first heard about it, he was the first thing that came to my mind," said Jim Payton, who is retired from the plant but had worked with Williams for about a year.

One victim was Lanette McCall of Cuba, Ala., 47, a black woman who had worked at the plant 15 years. Her husband, Bobby McCall, said she expected Williams to harm someone someday and that Williams had made racist threats in the past.

"Obviously he was sick," McCall said. "I wish somebody had given him some help before he ... destroyed my life and my kids' life."

The other dead were identified as Micky Fitzgerald, 45, of Little Rock, Miss.; Sam Cockrell, 46, of Meridian; Charlie Miller, 58, of Meridian; and Thomas Willis, 57, of Lisman, Ala.

"We're going to turn this thing around," said John Willis, Thomas Willis' nephew and a local pastor. "This is life. God in some way will help us get through it."

Sollie said all the shooting victims had been hit by shotgun blasts and there was no evidence the rifle had been fired. Authorities said three other guns were found in Williams' truck in the parking lot.

It was the nation's deadliest workplace shooting since a software tester in Wakefield, Mass., killed seven people the day after Christmas in 2000.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics president Dain Hancock called the shootings "a horrible tragedy, a senseless crime." The plant, located near Meridian, builds parts for C-130J Hercules transport planes and vertical stabilizers for F-22 Raptor fighter jets.

"There are no words that can express the amount sorrow that has been felt by all of those who have been touched," Hancock said. He said the company will provide emotional and financial support for workers at the Mississippi plant.

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove said: "Mississippi's family grieves today for this senseless tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those lost."

Lockheed Martin is the biggest defense contractor in the United States. The corporation had sales of $24 billion in 2001 and employs about 125,000 people.