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Edison Gunman and His Victims Identified, Sources Say He Was a Disgruntled Employee With Financial Problems
Details are starting to come out about a gunman's shooting rampage at Southern California Edison in Irwindale yesterday that left three — including the gunman — dead and two more injured.
The gunman has been identified as Andre Turner, 48, of Norco. His two victims were Henry Serrano, 56, of Walnut and Robert Scott Lindsay, 53, of Chino, according to KPCC. The names of two other victims who are in critical condition at the hospital — a man and a woman — have not been released.
Edison International has been telling its employees not to speak to the media, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune (which explains why there are so many anonymous sources in these stories). Its CEO Ted Craver did give a statement about the shooting:
This is one of the most horrible days in our company’s history. We are deeply saddened by today’s tragic events. We can now confirm that SCE employees were victims in the shooting.
As you can understand, our focus needs to be on all of our employees at this time. Our hearts go out to the victims. We are providing counseling to employees affected by this event.
As soon as we heard of the shooting, we secured our facilities and took all necessary precautions to protect our employees.
CBS Los Angeles met up with the mother and of Lindsay, when they got the bad news about their son, who was an operations manager in the IT department. Here's the full video:
The video is heart-wrenching, but there are also some interesting details in this report. His family said that they had trouble getting any sort of information about their son for nine hours from the time they learned of the shooting. They said they was making near-constant phone calls to find out what happened to their son, but police and Edison officials offered few timely details. They finally learned of their son's fate from his wife last night, not longer after a police officer came over and told her the bad news. CBS captured the moment their worst suspicions were confirmed.
There are more details coming out about the financial difficulties that the company and its employees were experiencing. Over Thanksgiving, Lindsay's family mentioned that the company was undergoing some hard times and there were a lot of cutbacks and layoffs. Before the shooting began, the company held a meeting discussing cuts and the threat of layoffs. Police said they have not confirmed a motive. Turner was having financial trouble and he learned Friday that he would not be getting a year-end bonus, according to a source who spoke with CBS Los Angeles.
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An anonymous employee told the Los Angeles Times that Turner chose his targets and didn't shoot randomly: "He told people to leave and he was very deliberate about who he shot. He did not like management."
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