KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The man suspected of killing three people at the Kansas factory where he worked had a criminal record in at least two states and had recently been served with an order to stay away from a woman.
Cedric L. Ford, 38, shot and wounded two people Thursday while driving to Excel Industries in the small town of Hesston. He then shot and killed three people at the lawnmower-parts factory before being shot and killed by an officer.
Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said Hesston Police Chief Doug Schroeder, who fatally shot Ford, was a “tremendous hero” because dozens more people were still in the factory and the “shooter wasn’t done by any means.”
Ford, who a co-worker said was a second-shift painter at Excel, also spent considerable time in Florida, where he had felony convictions for burglary, grand theft and carrying a concealed weapon.
His criminal record in Harvey County included a misdemeanor conviction in 2008 for fighting and various traffic violations from 2014 and 2015, according to The Wichita Eagle.