“Convicted ex-worker kills 5 in Melrose
Park
4 others injured in morning rampage at
Navistar plant”
Jon Yates
and Gary Marx
Tribune
Staff Writers
February 6,
2001
Just a
day away from a prison term for stealing from his ex-employer, a former Navistar
International Corp. worker strode into the trucking giant’s diesel engine plant
in Melrose Park on Monday and opened fire, killing four workers and wounding
four more before taking his own life.
About
850 workers were inside the sprawling complex when William D. Baker, using a
golf bag to conceal his cache of guns, walked through the center of a large
room where diesel engines undergo tests and sprayed gunfire from an AK-47
assault rifle, authorities said.
The
66-year-old former tool room attendant armed himself with a deadly arsenal:
along with the AK-47, he carried a .38-caliber revolver, a Remington shotgun, a
.30-caliber hunting rifle equipped with a scope, and a box of bullets and
magazine clips.
Authorities
said they suspected that Baker’s theft conviction and imminent imprisonment
provoked the attack. It was unclear whether Baker specifically targeted his
victims.
Plant
worker Randy Davis was testing an engine when he heard shots and dropped to the
floor. After about five seconds of silence, he rolled over and saw the
colleague who was working next to him lying nearby, bleeding from gunshot
wounds.
“He had
every opportunity in the world to shoot me,” Davis said.
Frightened
employees racing to get out jammed the building’s main exits, workers said.
Killed
were supervisor Daniel T. Dorsch, 52, of Elmwood Park; technician Robert E.
Wehrheim, 47, of Hanover Park; Michael Brus, 48, of Hinckley; and test engineer
William Garcia, 44, of Carpentersville.
Listed
in critical condition at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park was Carl
Swanson, 45, of Des Plaines, with a gunshot wound in his abdomen. Another worker, Mujtaba H. Aidroos, 24, of
Roselle, was shot in the chest and was in serious condition at Loyola
University Medical Center in Maywood. Bryan
Snyder, 26, of Hanover Park was in fair condition at Loyola with a gunshot
wound in his left arm. And Matt Kusch, 22, was treated for a gunshot wound to
his foot at Gottlieb and was released.
Michael
Kalagian was sitting at his desk in the building’s engineering offices when
several technicians ran past, shouting that a man with a gun was inside the
building.
“At
first, we didn’t believe it,” said Kalagian, 37, a development engineer from
Berwyn. “We thought it was a joke, then we heard two or three shots.”
Baker,
of Carol Stream, had worked at the plant for 39 years as a tool room attendant
before he was fired in 1994 after accusations that he and five other men
conspired to steal truck engines and parts from the plant, according to federal
court records.
Baker
joined two co-workers and three other men in a scheme to steal $195,400 in
diesel engines and parts. Baker pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy
to commit theft from interstate shipments. He was sentenced to 5 months in
prison, followed by 5 months of home confinement.
Baker’s
role in the engine theft ring was to use a forklift to load the stolen engines
and components onto trucks that co-worker Jerry Dunaway drove, according to his
plea agreement. Suspecting theft was occurring at the plant, Navistar had its
corporate security manager, John Martinicky, call the FBI and help them by
going undercover to investigate the ring, said Assistant U.S. Atty. William
Hogan Jr.
Dunaway,
who orchestrated the scheme, cooperated with FBI agents and wore a hidden
recorder to help nab his cohorts, Hogan said.
Baker
was scheduled to surrender to the federal government’s Bureau of Prisons on
Tuesday. Baker also was a registered sex offender. He was convicted in 1997 for
having sex with an underage girl and was sentenced to 48 months’ probation,
authorities said.
Workers
at the Melrose Park plant who knew Baker said he unleashed his rampage in the
same room where he had been assigned as an employee. They described him as
easygoing—not at all volatile or unstable.
“He was
a very nice guy—I couldn’t believe what he did,” said Julio Negron, 62, who
knew Baker for 20 years.
Located
on North Avenue just east of Mannheim Road, Navistar’s International Truck and
Engine Corp. plant employs about 1,400 people and manufactures diesel engines
for trucks and buses.
Sometime
before 9:45 a.m., Baker, with a golf bag slung across his back, walked up to
the northwest employee entrance, said Melrose Park Police Chief Vito Scavo.
Baker
told a security guard he had some personal belongings to return to a friend
inside the building. When the guard told him she would summon the friend to the
gate, Baker pulled out a .38 revolver and stuck it in the guard’s side.
“Well,
you’re going to have to take me into the building,” Scavo said Baker was
overheard saying. The guard was not injured.
Steven
Bell, 23, an associate test technician, saw Baker just before he entered the
testing room and wondered why a tall, elderly man in a heavy coat was carrying
a golf bag.
“I kind
of shook it off,” Bell said about an hour after the rampage, as he watched
television coverage from the union hall across the street from the plant.
Once
inside the testing room, Baker reached into the golf bag and pulled out an
AK-47 automatic assault rifle. As he walked down the center aisle, he began
firing his weapon at workers.
Baker
fired about 25 to 30 shots in a span of eight to 12 minutes, Scavo said. At one
point, he stopped in the aisle, turned around, walked back up a different aisle
between workstations, and continued firing.
“As he
went, bodies were discovered,” Scavo said. “He had quite a bit of ammunition.”
Many
workers sought refuge in the building’s basement. Engineer Martin Reutimann,
24, grabbed his coat and cell phone, raced outside and called 911.
“Everybody
took off and started running everywhere,” Reutimann said.
Baker
made his way to a corner office, where he shot to death one more person and
then turned the gun on himself, Scavo said.
Police
found the AK-47 rifle on a nearby desk, and the .38-caliber revolver on the
floor near his body. The shotgun and the hunting rifle were found inside the
golf bag.
Sources
said the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been asked by Melrose
Park police to trace Baker’s guns to determine where he got them and whether he
obtained them legally.
Police
are investigating what, if anything, Baker said to his victims. He left no note
at the scene and apparently said nothing to indicate his intentions to the
security guard. All of the victims were employees of Navistar, but the police
chief said it is unclear whether Baker knew any of them.
Company
officials would not discuss security at the plant, which uses guards and photo
ID swipe cards to gain access to different sections of the facility. Cliff
Baerlin, a plant machinist and an official of the United Auto Workers, which
represents some of the plant’s employees, said the company had switched
security firms Sunday.
Baker
and his wife, a civilian employee at the West Chicago Police Department, lived
in West Chicago until they divorced last year and he moved to Carol Stream.
He lived
alone in Spring Valley, a subdivision of brick and frame two-story townhouses,
except for occasional visits from his son, who neighbors said was about 7 years
old and lived with his mother.
The
inside of the home on Walnut Circle was decorated with sports photographs and
related memorabilia, neighbors said. Baker, at 6 foot 2 and about 275 pounds,
liked to lift weights, and had a weight bench set up near the entrance to his
home, close to the 50-inch color TV, one neighbor said.
Most
neighbors liked him but kept him at arm’s length after they learned last year—from
a list posted at the Village Hall—that he was a convicted sex offender, they
said. Those parents said they had forbidden their children to go to his house.
Baker
concealed other aspects of his past, telling neighbors that he had retired, not
that he had been forced to leave the company after his felony conviction.
“He was
a very friendly guy,” said Cindy Waidanz, 46, the neighbor two doors south of Baker
whose granddaughter was the recipient of Baker’s generosity. “That’s why I can’t believe this.”
“He kept
to himself,” Waidanz said. “He took care of his property very well. He seemed to me to be a good neighbor. Who
would have known? It blows your mind away.”
Tribune
staff writers Courtney Challos, Ted Gregory, Elizabeth Neff, Matt O’Connor, and
Dan Mihalopoulos contributed to this report.