Three dead and two injured in election day California shooting
A California shooting took place this morning at a meat plant in Fresno, Calif. The shooter, Lawrence Jones, 42, was a parolee with a criminal history dating back to the 1990’s. At 8:27 a.m., about three and a half hours into his shift, Jones pulled out a handgun and opened fire in the Apple Valley Farms plant. Three, including the shooter, are confirmed dead, and two are in critical condition.
Outside of the business, a 32-year-old woman was found shot in the back and is in serious condition, and two men were found shot inside on the California shooting scene. Of the latter two, one is in critical condition and the other has since been pronounced dead. A 32-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the head was pronounced dead at the scene and the shooter has since died after being rushed to the hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. There were as many as 30 witnesses to the California shooting.
An employee told authorities that Jones “did not appear to be himself” when he arrived for his shift at the California meat plant the day of the shooting. Jones had been working at Apple Valley Farms, a meat processing company that also goes by the name Valley Proteins, for 14 months. A reason for the California meat plant shooting is unknown at this time.
“It is difficult to say at this point if in fact there was a specific target that Jones was looking for,” Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said about the California shooting. “There was something that must have provoked this incident, perhaps that occurred today, or maybe was building up to today.”
