Workplace Shootings Kill Five in Separate Incidents

Tyler, TX (WorkersCompensation.com) – Workplace shootings took the lives of five employees in separate incidents over the past week. 

In Tyler, Texas, a patient is behind bars after fatally shooting two doctors at a dentist’s office. 

Authorities said Blake G. Sinclair, 59, of Tyler, and Jack E. Burroughs, 75, also of Tyler, both died from their injuries after the incident at Affordable Dentures & Implants. 

Smith County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Larry Christian said Steven Alexander Smith, 40, also of Tyler, was a patient at the clinic. Officials said that Smith became angry at clinic staff, went to his vehicle, got a medium-caliber weapon and went back inside the business. 

Ultimately, the sheriff said, Smith “shot two doctors who were working inside the business.” 

Smith also threatened a nurse with a gun, the sheriff said. 

“It’s my understanding that she pleaded with him not to shoot her, that she has a baby,” he said. 

The dental clinic said in a statement that their focus was on their employees. 

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic incident and hold Dr. Burroughs and Dr. Sinclair and their loved ones in our thoughts and prayers," said a spokesperson for Affordable Dentures & Implants. "Our immediate focus is on supporting our employees, our patients and the families of those impacted by this horrific event. We are grateful to law enforcement for their bravery and professionalism in the face of senseless violence and will do whatever we can to assist them. In the meantime, we request that the public please respect the privacy of those affected.” 

While Smith fled the area after the shooting, sheriff’s deputies found him at his home. After surrounding the house, Smith’s parents exited the home, followed by Smith a short time later. 

Smith was charged with capital murder of multiple persons, as well as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

In Houston, officials said a worker shot his supervisor to death inside a Greenway Plaza building on Wednesday. 

Officers and a Houston Police Department SWAT team responded to a report of a shooting on the 10th floor of the building, the location of Cedar Gate Technologies. 

Once there, they found the victim, Doran Kelly, 48, with a gunshot wound to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

According to court records, a witness identified, Montavious Terrell Wright, 26, as a shooter. Officials said they think Wright targeted Kelly, his supervisor. The witness told authorities that he was sitting at his cubicle when he heard a gunshot and looked out of it to see Wright pointing a pistol at Kelly. 

"We do not know why he chose to target his supervisor," Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite said Wednesday. "We do believe he did target him because he passed up everybody else. We do not think this was random, but that he was actually looking for a supervisor and targeted him specifically." 

The building where the shooting occurred in has multiple businesses in solar energy, investment banking, finances and technology. People who work in the building told FOX 26 that the building management had mandatory active shooter training last year in October. 

Wright was arrested at his home and charged with murder. Police had no motive and are investigating. 

Prosecutors said that because Wright killed the victim in “cold blood” at his workplace, they requested a $1 million bond. The public defender requested bond be set at $40,000 because of his lack of criminal history. 

The judge set Wright’s bond at $500,000 on Thursday morning, and required that if he is released, he must not have any contact with the victim’s family or any employee of Cedar Gate Technologies, and that he cannot come within 500 feet of the shooting scene. 

In Detroit, a hotel maintenance worker was shot by a man in an eviction dispute. 

Police said Jmar Tubbs is suspected to have shot a longtime worker at the Normandie Hotel. Another maintenance man at the hotel told FOX 2 that he has spoken to the victim about remodeling a room. When the maintenance man went to lock the door the door of a tenant who was late on their rent, when the fatal shooting. 

"It didn't have to happen like this. Especially to shoot him down like that - he was trying to run away," the maintenance man told FOX 2. "He's like the coolest person ever. I just can't believe that somebody would do this. Somebody was great, somebody was awesome. Somebody was just taken from us just for a minor dispute.” 

Police said no one else was injured in the incident and an investigation is ongoing. 

And in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a restaurant worker shot by a former employee has died. 

Police said a former worker entered Shooter’s Waterfront restaurant on Tuesday and shot a server on the patio in front of customers. 

Ali Adamson, Fort Lauderdale Police detective, said there was an altercation between the shooter and the server.

“He was working his shift; he had just begun,” Adamson said. “The ex-employee came to the business, where he got into the altercation, which I’m not sure, I don’t have the details on what the altercation was about, and then the shooting took place shortly after the argument started.” 

Police said 35-year-old Jordan Siddiq had shown up for his shift around 3:45 p.m. A few minutes later, they said, 33-year-old Angel Candelaria arrived and sat at the outside bar. 

Surveillance video from the restaurant showed Candelaria confront Siddiq near the bar, officials said. The two had a conversation for several minutes, police said, before Candelaria pulled out a gun and shot Siddiq once. 

Police said Candelaria started to walk away but then turned around and walked back and shot Siddiq a second time. 

Witnesses said customers and staff ran toward the victim. 

“I was in the kitchen and I saw a bunch of people running towards the door,” Carlos Murgas told NBC 6. 

Murgas said he ran to the outside bar area and saw people trying to perform CPR on Siddiq.

Witnesses said the incident escalated quickly. 

“I tried to de-escalate the situation,” a witness told WSVN. “They just kept going at it. I didn’t think it would get that far. It went from a simple discussion, those guys were just going back and forth, it wasn’t even a loud argument to be honest with you guys.” 

Police tracked Candelaria to a parking garage and found him hiding under a car on the fifth floor. He was arrested and charged with one count of first-degree murder.

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