Manchester police release report on 2010 mass shootings

MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) - Manchester police say their investigation of a mass shooting in which a man killed eight co-workers found no evidence to support his claims of that he was a victim of racism.

Manchester Police Chief Marc Montminy said Omar Thornton interpreted his lack of seniority at Hartford Distributors as evidence of racism at the beer distribution company.

Thornton shot eight people within three minutes last August before killing himself. He had been fired for stealing beer immediately before the shootings.

Montminy said investigators found no evidence of racism, but were told that a drawing of President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck was seen on a bathroom wall months before the shootings and was quickly removed by the company.

Manchester police released the 543-page report of their investigation Thursday.

Hartford Distributors hired a private investigator to take videos of Thornton stealing beer off his delivery truck and selling it on the side. That morning, Thornton had a meeting where managers who showed him the videos and Thornton resigned. On his way out, he went to get his lunch bag.

"Omar walked into the kitchenette, opened his lunch bag and pulled out a 9 mm handgun and immediately shot Mr. Felder at close range," says Chief Marc Montminy of Manchester Police.

Thornton then went to the warehouse area and shot a man operating a forklift. That man's foot hit the gas, and the spinning tires actually started a small fire.

As the shots ring out, frightened employees start calling 911.

Thornton kept moving around the warehouse, shooting three more people and chasing one more outside where he runs into yet another potential victim.

On the lobby security camera, you can see  two employees watching the shooting right outside the front door. Then they realize they can't get back through the locked security door to get back into the building. Eventually Thornton goes back inside through another door.

Those two men escape out the front just seconds before Thornton bursts into the lobby, looking for more victims. Then he finds he's locked out too, so he shoots out the door to get back in. He did that because he saw a half dozen police cars pull up outside. The cops storm the building. Thornton locks himself in an office for a few minutes and makes two phone calls.

"A single gunshot is heard from in the room. Police breach the door via forced entry and find Omar Thornton dead of a single gunshot wound," says Chief Montminy.

Just before that, Thornton called 911 and ranted about racism at Hartford Distributors.

"These people are crazy, at this racist company," said Thornton.

He told people he had evidence of racist graffiti on his phone, but the police went through everything on his phone and computer and definitively found not one piece of evidence of racism. Police showed that evidence to the victims' families yesterday.

"What was good was that it showed the families that their family members weren't racist. They're very relieved in that now the truth's going to come out," says Christopher Coos, victims' spokeman.

Manchester police learned a few things about their own operation on that day too. The chief says he really wishes he could have had more control over the information as it was released to the press and to family members, but with technology, he says that's pretty much impossible.