Brewery Gunman Had Noose Put in His Locker

Anthony Ferrill, 51, killed five co-workers last week
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 4, 2020 7:28 PM CST
Brewery Gunman Had Noose Put in His Locker
This undated file photo provided by Craig Mastantuono, an attorney representing the Ferrill family, shows Anthony Ferrill, the man police say killed five people at the Molson Coors brewery complex in Milwaukee.   (Courtesy of the Ferrill family via AP, File)

The brewery worker who went on a gun rampage last week had a noose placed in his locker in 2015, NBC News reports. Anthony Ferrill, 51, who killed five co-workers on Feb. 26 and died by apparent suicide, never actually saw the noose, according to Molson Coors Brewery in Milwaukee. Seems the racist symbol was placed there on his day off and shown to him later. "There aren't words to describe it, it's awful ... our HR team brought it to his attention," chief communications and corporate affairs officer Adam Collins tells WTMJ. "We investigated it fully and tried to find video cameras and what we have inside the space to see if we could figure out who placed it there."

But the company never came to a formal conclusion about who placed the noose. As for race relations at Molson Coors, Collins said "clearly on our end we have work to do. To be the kind of welcoming inclusive open organization that we believe Molson Coors is and should be." Neither police nor Molson Coors will speculate about Ferrill's motive in the shooting, but as the AP points out, Ferrill was black and four of his victims were white, while one was Latino. Milwaukee police say that "neither race nor racism has been identified as a factor in this incident" and "it is imperative to wait for the facts of the investigation to be released rather than speculating and generating a false narrative." (The gunman was still wearing his uniform.)

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