Death toll climbs in Kansas City, Kansas, meatpacking plant shootings

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) _ A shooter at a meatpacking plant killed six people and wounded three others Friday afternoon before committing suicide, police said. <br/><br/>Kansas City, Kan., police spokeswoman

Friday, July 2nd 2004, 7:11 pm

By: News On 6

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) _ A shooter at a meatpacking plant killed six people and wounded three others Friday afternoon before committing suicide, police said.

Kansas City, Kan., police spokeswoman Mary Solem said she had no details about who committed the slayings at the ConAgra Foods Inc. plant, including whether the shooter was a man or woman.

A police dispatcher who did not give her name said a ConAgra employee walked into the cafeteria and began firing, then killed himself. Witnesses said the shooting took place shortly after 5 p.m.

Three people hurt during the shooting were being treated at The University of Kansas Hospital, spokesman Bob Hallinan said. He had no information about their conditions.

Meatpackers in white coats were among the crowd of employees gathered outside the plant, and workers' relatives and friends arrived at the scene as word spread.

Solem said the employees were being kept in a safe location, and chaplains and victim advocates were there to ``calm them down.''

The ConAgra plant is located in an industrial section of the city, about three miles southwest of downtown Kansas City, Mo.

A phone message left at ConAgra headquarters in Omaha, Neb., was not immediately returned.

The shooting came a year and a day after an employee of a manufacturing plant in Jefferson City, Mo., shot eight people, three fatally, before killing himself in front of the city's police headquarters.