Man Shoots, Kills Co-worker After she Rejects Him

St. Cloud, MN (WorkersCompensation.com) - A Minnesota man has been charged with second degree murder after officials said he shot a co-worker who told him to leave her alone. 

Michael J. Carpenter, 36, was arrested after police found 28-year-old Nicole Hammond dead in the parking lot of the textile business they both worked at on Monday morning. Hammond had been shot in the neck. Officers found her near her car with a pool of blood around her head, her keys and phone nearby.

Prosecutors said two witnesses, also employees of the textile company, said Carpenter was standing near his car with the front and rear passenger-side doors open. One witness said when Hammond got out of her car, Carpenter left his car, and walked toward her. The witnesses also said they heard a gunshot. Carpenter ran to his car and drove away after the gunshot, the witnesses said, according to police. 

According to the criminal complaint, investigators found text messages between Hammond and Carpenter from the night before the shooting. In the texts, Hammond told Carpenter that she didn't want to be "touched" or "manipulated," and she asked that Carpenter not make things difficult at work. 

Police said that multiple employees told investigators that Carpenter had made advances on Hammond several times, and that she had repeatedly rejected them. The complaint said Carpenter was also described as having a "bad temper." 

Managers said nothing was ever brought to the attention of management. 

"Unfortunately, we had no idea," Hammond’s boss Rob Dubow told KMSP. "Any time there is anything that requires our intervention we step in. But in this case we had no indication that there was anything awry." 

Police said Carpenter was arrested a few hours later. Investigators found a 9-mm pistol and a loaded magazine in the back seat of Carpenter's car that matched the style and brand of bullets used in the shooting.

Carpenter told investigators that he walked toward Hammond's car, but when he heard a gunshot and saw a lot of blood, he left. 

During his arraignment, bail was set at $4 million. His next court date is Nov. 8. 

The co-worker killing is the latest in a string of workplace killings this year.

In September, a 16-year-old Arby's employee in Oklahoma City killed a co-worker. M.Sgt. Gary Knight with the Oklahoma City Police Department said that the two co-workers were arguing prior to the shooting. 

"At some point, during this argument, one of the employees went out to his car, retrieved a handgun, and came back in and shot the other," Knight said. 

Officers said D'Quan Brown, 28, died after the 16-year-old shot him. The suspect fled the scene after the shooting, but police later found and arrested him. 

"It’s just unfortunate. It’s just an unfortunate thing to happen," Chris Holmes, a witness, told Local Today, Oklahoma. 

In August, a Hamilton County, Ohio restaurant employee was arrested for stabbing and killing his co-worker at a B.J. Brewhouse in Springdale, Ohio near Cincinnati. 

Springdale police said 18-year-old Jan Dela-Pe-Tolentino allegedly stabbed his co-worker Paris Dismukes, a father of five. 

Dismukes' mother and brother reportedly told officers on the scene that Tolentino believed that a witch had told him "the other man was going to shoot him in the head with a gun" and that that is why he stabbed Dismukes'. 

Dela-Pe-Tolentino was charged with murder and possession of drugs, officials said. 

Also in August, a 48-year-old Albanian man was arrested for killing a co-worker at an Orion Township General Motors plant. Astrit Bushi was arrested and charged with killing Gregory Robertson, 49 of Pontiac. Officials said the two men worked together as third party cleaners hired to work at the plant. 

Robertson was found unconscious in a dock area of the plant. Officers said he was struck in the head with a board. It's not clear what started the fight, police said. 

And in June, Joshua Johnson was arrested for killing Riley Whitelaw, his 17-year-old co-worker at a Colorado Springs Walgreens. Whitelaw reportedly told store managers a year prior to the attack that Whitelaw was making unwanted advances toward her and that she was uncomfortable. 

According to court records, a manager noticed that Johnson stacked boxes and bins in front of a surveillance camera until it blocked the camera's view. The manager also said that someone had taped paper on the windows in the break room and posted a "restroom closed" sign in the area to keep people out of the area. 

Her body was found inside the break room of the store on June 11. Johnson was arrested by state troopers the next day about 100 miles away. Troopers said he was covered with cuts and bruises. Johnson told officers that he had been attacked at a Walgreens in Colorado Springs. 

Managers said that Whitelaw had asked not to be scheduled at the same time at Johnson, but that when she needed more hours, she was told she would have to work with him. When her

boyfriend came to work at the same Walgreens, other employees noted that Johnson seemed jealous. Johnson admitted to police that he had a crush on Whitelaw, but that it was over and that he was in a relationship with another co-worker. 

In September, a judge, who said Whitelaw's death was "incredibly brutal," denied bail for Johnson, saying the evidence in the cause indicates the attack was a crime of passion, and that the apparent murder weapon was a match to a weapon found in Johnson's work locker. 

According to the Texas Department of Insurance, the best ways to stop workplace violence are to develop a zero-tolerance policy for violence, enhance security, train managers how to deal with conflict resolution; behavior recognition; stress reduction and post-incident procedures; train employees on recognizing, avoiding, and defusing potentially violent situations; and keep good records of OSHA logs, incident reports, insurance and police records in order to see patterns in a workplace's vulnerabilities and what kinds of preventative actions might be needed.

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