Employees Killed, Injured in Attacks by Co-workers

Philadelphia, PA (WorkersCompensation.com) – Three men are dead, and others injured after being attacked by their co-workers in separate incidents during the end of March.   

Last Wednesday, police in Philadelphia reported that a man stabbed and ran over his coworker then took the man’s body from the crime scene.   

Police said Dominique Harris, 30, has been charged with criminal homicide and possession of an instrument of crime in the death of a former coworker, Michael Pickens, 54.   

Around 9 a.m., Bensalem Public Safety Superintendent William McVey said, an employee at the beer and soda distributor called police to report blood, a cell phone and various articles of clothing in the business’ parking lot.   

After reviewing surveillance footage, police identified Harris as the suspect in Pickens death. Police said footage showed that around 1 a.m., Harris chased after Pickens, eventually catching him and stabbing him more than 50 times. At first, police said, Harris ran from the scene, but later returned in a silver sedan and ran over Pickens’ body three time, dragging him under the car. At one point, police said, Harris allegedly tied a belt around Pickens’ neck and strangled him.   

After the attack, Harris loaded Pickens’ body into his car and drove off, officials said.   

“It shocks your senses to see this, that a person could brutalize another human being in that way,” Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub, speaking at a news conference Thursday, said.   

Pickens’ had been working a closing shift at Wendy’s, near the beer distributor. Detectives said Harris and Pickens gotten into a fight on Jan. 27 while working together at Wendy’s. After the fight, Harris was charged with harassment and fired from the restaurant.   

On Tuesday, a New York City parks worker was arrested for attacking a coworker in an industrial area near the Long Island City waterfront.   

New York Police Department officials said Darryl Brown, 46, was arrested and charged with assault, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon after he got into an argument with a coworker. Officials said it wasn’t clear what had started the argument.   

The coworker was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for his injuries. Brown, officials with the parks department said, has been suspended from his job. The incident is under investigation.   

On Monday, police in Georgia found one man dead, shot by a coworker as they traveled home from a job.   

According to the Jackson County Sheriff Office, a deputy with the department responded to a call around 3 a.m. about an incident near the 144-mile marker on northbound I-85. When they arrived, they found Samuel Sanders, 71, of Philadelphia, unresponsive in the driver’s seat of a truck with a gunshot wound to his head. Sanders was transferred to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after.   

Sheriff’s deputies, along with Georgia State Patrol officers and the Jefferson and Commerce police departments went on a manhunt for a suspect that was seen fleeing the area. By 9 a.m., authorities found the 67-year-old suspect, Donald Carter, hiding in a building close to the highway. Deputies said the two men had just finished working a job in Georgia and were headed back to Philadelphia when they got into an  argument. As a result, Carter shot and killed Sanders.   

Carter has been charged with aggravated murder.   

And on March 23, a trucker who had lost his job, showed up at his workplace anyway, fatally shooting his boss, and then traveling to another former workplace, where he wounded a former co-worker.   

Police said Jeremy Jerome Spicer, 31, entered Winner’s Freight in Burr Ridge, Ill, around 3 p.m. The recently fired trucker then shot his former boss, Nicola Misovic, 30, of Willowbrook.   

Misovic was taken to Hinsdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead.  

Police said Spicer then went to Force Logistics in Burr Ridge, where he shot a 31-year-old former female coworker. The woman was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital where she was treated for a leg wound.  

While police were responding to the incident at Force Logistics, Spicer went to a third former workplace and asked for the boss. When he was told they weren’t there, Spicer walked a mile to another business, and asked to use the restroom. Employees asked Spicer to leave after he stayed there for 20 minutes. When he left the building, employees called the police.   

Spicer was sitting in his car when police responded. An office noticed Spicer’s handgun and took cover behind a nearby car. The officer said he heard a gunshot, and later found Spicer dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.  

“This tragic loss of life did not have to happen,” Burr Ridge Deputy Police Chief Marc Loftus said. “It’s an unfortunate occurrence of workplace violence.”  

Loftus said Spicer had come to the Chicago area from his home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Over the past week, he had been staying at the LaQuinta Inn in Willowbrook, Loftus said.   

Officials said Spicer had delivered one load for Winner’s Freight, but that there had been a disagreement over whether or not he would deliver another load before being let go, Loftus said. How long Spicer had been in the area, or how long he had worker for the other two companies was not immediately known.