Episode 82: Omar S. Thornton
Omar Thornton
Born two months early on April 25th, 1976, Omar S. Thornton started his life having been dealt some difficult cards. While not much is known about his childhood, enough is clear to show that he had trouble as a kid. For example, at age five, Omar was struck by a car and spent eight days in the Intensive Care Unit. He never graduated high school, and found himself bouncing around menial, tedious jobs. Although he was described as likeable and a good worker, Omar managed to get fired from several jobs, and even was known to have some legal infractions occur while employed at several places.
In August of 2008, Omar began working at Hartford Distributors Inc., where he started as a laborer in the warehouse, and eventually worked his way up to a truck driver. Despite progressing through the company, Omar felt the workplace was racist against him. An incident in June of 2010 landed him in the hot seat, as he was caught on surveillance footage stealing beer kegs from his own truck on more than one occasion. When caught and confronted, Omar let all of his pent up rage boil over and committed an atrocious act of violence.
On August 3rd, 2010, Omar attended a meeting in which he was forced to resign, and immediately following, Omar took out a Ruger SR9 semi-automatic pistol and killed 8 of his coworkers, before killing himself. According to Omar, the motivation behind the massacre was racism.
The victims of the Hartford Distribution Massacre include:
Louis Felder, 50
Bryan Cirgliano, 51
Frances Fazio Jr., 57
Douglas Scruton, 56
Edwin Kennison, 49
William Ackerman, 51
Craig Pepin, 60
Victor James, 61
Image Sources:
The Trace via twitter.com
nytimes.com - “Amid Mourning, Eerie Details Emerge About Connecticut Shootings”