A 51-year-old employee at the Molson Coors brewing facility in Milwaukee opened fire yesterday afternoon, killing five co-workers before taking his own life. According to news sources, police arrived at the facility shortly after 2 p.m. and found the perpetrator dead at the scene, and then the bodies of his victims.
The company sent an email to employees at 2:19 p.m., alerting them to an active shooter in or near the facility’s south packaging building, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WISN-TV reported. Approximately 1,000 employees worked at the facility.
An email sent later to Molson Coors employees, Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley advised them that there was no longer an active threat at company facilities.
Authorities have not identified the victims or the gunman, pending notification to their families, nor have they made any statements regarding the possible motives of the gunman.
Molson Coors Beverage Co. is the parent company of Molson Coors. Public tours of the facility, which houses both brewing operations and office buildings, were reportedly taking place when the headquarters was placed on lockdown.
The company issued a statement that the Milwaukee office and brewery would remain closed for the rest of the week.
This was the 11th mass shooting to occur in Wisconsin since 2004. It is the 45th mass shooting in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that defines mass shootings as those that leave at least four dead or wounded.