Posts Tagged ‘workplace shooting’

Crime Scene Aftermath: University Shooting

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

The disturbed graduate student had had enough. Years of being ostracized and scoffed at would soon come to an end. On a spring morning on the university’s campus he walked in to a classroom and shot two students. Before the campus officials or police could respond, he walked to a different building and unloaded a series of shots killing several unarmed students and wounding scores of others, many physically and others mentally or emotionally. By the time the university issued a campus-wide lockdown and the deranged perpetrator shot himself, over a dozen people were dead.

The entire university community was in a state of deep shock. With security issues to address and memorial services to plan, one aspect of the response that the university officials were free from having to concern themselves with was the death scene cleanup. The university hired a death scene cleaner company which does accident scene cleanings, crime scene cleanings, homicide scene cleanings, blood scene cleanings, meth lab cleanings, odor removal cleanings and suicide scene cleanings. They reviewed the affected areas where the shootings took place. They further applied the appropriate solvents to get rid of the blood.

They removed all the shredded tissue and took care of other cleaning responsibilities. Then the death scene cleaners sanitized and decontaminated the crime scene and advised the university’s custodial staff about what they did and what they might want to be looking for in the future to ensure no hazardous or toxic materials reemerge. While the university would take years to fully recover from the tragedy, the crime scene cleanup aspect of the response was complete.

For more information about our scene cleanup services, contact ABT toll free at 1-800-860-4268.

No Visible Reminders At Workplace Shooting

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

A man peers at the note in his hand. Coming just seven days after his wife kicked him out of the house, he re-reads the words on his termination notice from his job at the car plant. With the removal of his personal effects as the only thing he has left to do at the factory, he sluggishly puts on his navy jacket and leaves to go down there checking the contents of his left inside pocket. When he gets to the gate of the plant, he shows his ID card and tells the security guy he is there to clean out his locker. The security attendant waves him on in. He enters the factory through the employee entrance, walks to the locker room and loads up his belongings.

Before exiting he walks over to the factory floor. His ex-foreman, seeing him on the floor, comes over to tell him good-bye and “it’s time for him to go.” Disapproving of his foreman’s smirk, the laid off man pulls a gun from his pocket, fires at the foreman killing him with one shot to the cranium and unleashes a series of shots killing two other men directly and one indirectly as the man was shot in the arm while lifting part of a car assembly. The assembly fell onto another man smothering him to death. After the gun’s chamber was empty, the disconsolate man dropped the weapon and was summarily tackled by three other workers.

In addition to the police, a crime scene cleaning company was summoned to the factory. Blood, ripped tissue and other organic material was strewn all over the factory. The crime scene cleaning company, well-experienced in performing suicide scene cleanups, meth lab cleanups, odor removal cleanups and other death scene cleanups and blood scene cleanups, sprung in to action. Knowledgeable of pertinent OSHA regulations, they were able to work well with the management of the factory. Cognizant of the need to preserve certain evidence for the police case against the arrested perpetrator, they consulted with the lead detective to ensure all evidence was properly gathered at certain times of the cleaning. Encouraged by the management of the company to act expeditiously, they worked swiftly but carefully.

The workers on the shift at that time will never forget the horror of that day. However, to the extent the physical reminders of the tragedy were removed as quickly as possible, there was no visible reminder to retrigger the trauma of the day although the sad memories will linger in their minds.