By Jennifer Edwards and Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Family members of a victim shot at Watkins Motor Lines Inc. are taken into a business next to the West Chester Township truck terminal Thursday. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

WEST CHESTER TWP. - The white utility van blew past the security checkpoint at Watkins Motor Lines Inc. shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday.

The heavyset, bearded man inside steered toward one of the trucking firm's office buildings about 100 yards away and put the van in park. Packing two handguns, he got out and bolted through the building's side door.

Then he started shooting, squeezing the triggers at least a dozen times, police said. Workers dived under their desks.

By the time it was over - a matter of seconds - two people were fatally wounded and three others lay injured on the break room's tile floor.

Tom West surrendered to Indiana police Thursday. (Greensburg Daily News photo) | ZOOM |

"It was all very quick. It's a horrible tragedy five times over," Police Chief John Bruce said Thursday outside the company on Centre Park Drive, in an industrial park near Interstate 275. "We believe the suspect shot anyone and everyone he saw. We have no reason to believe the suspect had a target in mind."

None of the witnesses recognized the shooter, Bruce said. But a tip led them to Tom C. West, 50, a former truck driver who resigned two years ago from Watkins' Atlanta location.

Within two hours, following a manhunt that shut down area roads and locked down nearby schools, West surrendered at an Indiana truck stop.

After ordering lunch at the Petro Stopping Center in rural New Point, he told an employee that he needed a favor: "Call police. They are looking for me," West told general manager Gary Copeland.

It wasn't clear late Thursday what triggered the rampage that killed Donald Haury, a 50-year-old Bellbrook, Ohio, resident and Bob Lines, a 65-year-old dispatcher from Springfield Township, Bruce said. Haury died at the scene, Lines at Bethesda North Hospital about an hour after the shooting.

"What could make a man take lives of people he doesn't even know?" asked Janet Lines, Bob's wife of 45 years, Thursday night as she sat stunned at the couple's home.

INFOGRAPHIC

• Shooting at Watkins (PDF file).

LOCAL WORKPLACE SHOOTINGS

FEBRUARY 2002 In Washington Court House, Ohio, a man was charged with shooting his co-worker to death in the parking lot of their workplace. Clarence B. Constant Jr., 37, was charged with aggravated murder in the shooting death of Rex A. Ashley, 45, at the Sugar Creek Packing Co. SEPTEMBER 2000 In Fairfield, a Cambodian immigrant who fired 17 bullets into a co-worker was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to murder. Sophal Prom, 35, admitted killing Darlene Adams, 42, of Newport, at Prestige Display & Packaging. The 42-year-old mother of two was working when Prom opened fire. APRIL 1996 In Roselawn, William McCoy, a dispatcher and co-owner at Towne Taxi, was shot in the head at point-blank range by an ex-employee, Alan Wiechman. McCoy survived the shooting. Wiechman was sentenced to 15 to 35 years in prison. Wiechman, 53, had been fired for drinking. DECEMBER 1995 In Evendale, Gerald Clemons of Westwood shot three co-workers, David Kreamelmeyer, Christina Teetzell and Robert Kinney, at the Trans-Continental Systems building. The three victims worked in the trucking company's offices, and Clemons was a driver. Clemons was convicted of aggravated murder, and Hamilton County Judge Norbert Nadel sentenced him to death. 1981 In Lockland, after being told he was being fired, Lawrence McNair opened fire during a disciplinary hearing at Diamond International Corp. in Lockland. Two men died and two others were wounded. McNair was sentenced to life in prison.

The injured were identified as Billy F. Claywell, 48, of Cave City, Ky.; Glen Brierly, 48, of Hamilton, and Gary Fissel, 50, of Huntersville, N.C. Claywell, who was treated and released at Mercy Hospital Fairfield, declined to comment after he returned to the trucking company.

West was charged late Thursday with two counts of aggravated murder and three counts of attempted murder. He was returned to Butler County Thursday night after waiving his right to an extradition hearing in Indiana.

Motive unknown

Bruce declined to describe any evidence or to say whether West confessed. He declined to specify a motive, but said workplace retaliation "would seem to make sense, but we just don't know."

Police are releasing little about West's background, or that of the victims. Watkins officials said West worked at the company's Atlanta location from October 1998 to November 2001, when he resigned as an over-the-road driver.

Watkins, based in Lakeland, Fla., is one of the nation's top trucking firms, with 12,000 employees and 132 hubs. Its trucks carry freight, liquids and gases, paper products and building materials.

The firm has had at least one other incident of workplace violence. In July 1999, a Watkins maintenance worker killed his boss before committing suicide at the company's Charlotte, N.C., site.

Police said West never worked at the West Chester trucking facility, where freight truckers were dispatched across the country.

Computer searches indicate West lived in several states over the years, including Hoffman Estates, Ill., Hixson, Tenn., and Demotte, Ind., and had registered post office boxes in Tennessee, Georgia and Indiana.

Police confirmed that West used a second name: Joseph John Eschenbrenner III, whose last known address was an apartment in Hoffman Estates, Ill. They said he has used Tom West for at least the last 10 years.

Chief Bruce declined to say whether West has a criminal history.

Decatur County (Ind.) prosecutor William O. Smith said the van's license plates were registered to West at a post office box in Las Vegas.

Distraught families

Detectives spent most of the day interviewing witnesses, including at least three people who were in the break room at the time of the shootings but were not injured.

About an hour after the rampage, Haury's relatives arrived seeking word. His wife walked around frantically in the rain and interrupted Bruce as he gave interviews. She told the chief she was checking on her husband.

"What is his name?" Bruce asked her.

"Donald Haury," the woman said.

"Come with me," Bruce told her, putting an arm around her and leading her across the street. A few minutes later, Haury's wife screamed and fell to her knees in the company's driveway.

Near hysterics, she told an older couple with her what had happened. The unidentified man flailed his arms and yelled, "I'll kill him!"

Police chaplains were called in to counsel distraught victims' families and employees. Watkins also dispatched its crisis team, Bruce said.

Across the street, standing with dozens of reporters and television cameras and onlookers, people waited for reports about their loved ones.

Some silently prayed. Others cried. Some reached their moms and dads on cell phones and told them they loved them.

Kenny Saylor and several of his relatives were there to check on his mother, Mary Lou, who was in the building when the shots rang out.

"She saw it all," said Saylor, 41, of Hamilton. "She said she was sitting at her desk and he just came in, and she said she saw that he was holding a gun.

"She thought it was a play gun until she heard three pops and dove under her desk. She waited until it was over with and then she got up and checked on everybody."

"It's unreal. It makes you uneasy. Everybody gets along here. It just doesn't make sense," said George Vonderhaar, who worked for Watkins for about seven years. He hurried to the scene to check on his older brother, Steve, who was on duty at the time.

He said he was surprised the shooter was able to get past the unarmed guard, but said: "How are you going to stop anything like this?"

Bruce said the guard followed procedure and notified the building staff immediately, but it was too late.

Contributing to this report: Reid Forgrave, Erica Solvig, Marie McCain, Steve Kemme, Robert Anglen, Howard Wilkinson, Mark Wert, John Byczkowski, David Eck and Sue Kiesewetter.