there certainly is a great deal of stress in this industry - I find many auto parts guys are always crabby and impatient. I thnk I'm gonna start carrying my 9 mm again.

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CHICAGO (Aug. 27) - A gunman on the verge of losing his job opened fire at an auto parts warehouse Wednesday, killing six people, authorities said. The attacker also was killed, hospital officials said.

Authorities got a call at about 8:45 a.m. that a person had been shot - possibly by a co-worker at the Windy City Core Supply Inc., police spokesman Pat Camden said. He said police fired shots as they entered the South Side building.

''A disgruntled employee who had either been terminated or was going to be terminated returned to the business, and that's where the shooting took place,'' Camden said.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said seven people died.

The gunman was among two people pronounced dead at John H. Stroger Hospital, Stroger spokesman Tony Ewell said.

It was not immediately clear whether the gunman was shot by police or had shot himself, Camden said.

Camden said police and the man exchanged gunfire inside and outside the building. Police tried to negotiate with the man but he refused, Camden said.

Al Martinez, owner of a business about a half block from the shooting scene, said he was at work when he heard the sound of gunfire.

''We saw a guy shooting at police officers outside the building and saw people running around like crazy,'' said Martinez, who owns Midway Pallets. ''We came and saw all the cops running, hiding behind cars.''

All buildings within a block of the auto parts and supply store were evacuated.

AP-NY-08-27-03 1426EDT

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The only relevance I see to Volvos is that it reminded me of a violent Volvo parts guy at Keystone Volvo named Lenny. I discovered he had been fired from a previous Volvo dealership for causing trouble. So, I am wondering if this whole auto business is going to suffer a similar rash of violence like all those postal rampages we saw years ago. Just trying to stay on top of things.

Here is part II of this story, for what its worth, little I suppose.


CHICAGO (Aug. 27) - A fired worker hunted down and shot to death six employees of an auto parts supply warehouse on Wednesday, then refused to surrender and was killed by police, authorities said.

"From the scene, it appears he went throughout the supply warehouse shooting them," acting Chicago Police Superintendent Philip Cline said. "They all suffered fatal gunshot wounds."

The gunman, identified by authorities as 36-year-old Salvador Tapia, had been fired six months ago for poor performance at Windy City Core Supply Inc., and recently made threatening telephone calls to one of the owners.

"According to management, he was fired six months ago for being a poor employee -- late, not showing up at work, causing trouble at work," Cline said. The phone calls were not reported to police.

When officers arrived Wednesday morning in answer to a call of shots fired, an employee with his hands tied behind his back, who had escaped, told them Tapia was inside and had shot several employees. Another worker who was caught in rush hour traffic also escaped the carnage.

Tapia may have arrived before some employees, then fired at arriving officers in two separate confrontations outside.

A team of heavily armed officers then stormed the warehouse -- which Cline described as a thicket of barrels, containers and auto engines -- and found Tapia hiding. He refused to put down his weapon, a Walther PP .380 pistol, and was killed by an officer, Cline said.

Police searched the warehouse for hours afterward, looking for any additional victims amid the maze of auto parts.

Tapia had been arrested a dozen times in the past 14 years on various charges, including illegal possession of a weapon, domestic battery and assault. He was convicted in 1989 of illegal possession of a gun and received a year's probation.

"The problem here is easy access to a firearm," Cline said. "I mean here's someone who never should have had a gun, that had a gun, and it's tragic results from it."

Chicago, which has one of the nation's highest murder rates, has been in the forefront of U.S. cities suing gun manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Mayor Richard Daley frequently rails against the influx of weapons into the city that bans their sale inside its borders.

Last week in Ohio, an automotive supply plant worker killed one co-worker and wounded two others before killing himself.

Other workplace shootings in recent years include the July 1999 slayings of nine people at two Atlanta brokerage offices by a stock trader, who earlier killed his wife and two children. In December, a copier repairman shot to death seven people at a Xerox Corp. facility in Honolulu.

In February 2001, a former worker at a suburban Chicago Navistar factory who was about to start a prison term returned to the plant and opened fire, killing four and then himself.

08/27/03 18:22 ET

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