Gunman in Alabama slayings was briefly a police officer
GENEVA, Alabama (CNN) -- The gunman responsible for the deadliest crime in Alabama's history worked briefly as a police officer in the small town of Samson, which was hardest hit by Tuesday's deadly rampage, authorities said Wednesday.
Authorities identified the shooter as Michael McLendon, 28, of Kinston, Alabama, in Coffee County. Speaking at several news conferences on Wednesday, authorities also released a detailed timeline of the rampage -- which lasted less than an hour -- and identified the victims.
By the time it was over, McLendon had shot and killed at least 10 people -- including two children -- and wounded at least four others before he killed himself, officials said.
But they still have no idea of a motive.
"I don't think anybody has any idea of what the motive is," Samson Mayor Clay King told CNN's "American Morning." "The whole community is still in shock."
CNN affiliate WTVY, citing the Associated Press, is reporting that the gunman had a list of those "who done him wrong."
Coffee County District Attorney Gary McAliley told the AP an investigator found the list in the shooter's home, according to WTVY.
McLendon was armed with two assault rifles, two semiautomatic weapons, a handgun and a shotgun, and "high-capacity" rounds.
"We believe he fired in excess of 200 rounds during the assaults," Alabama State Police Cpl. Steve Jarrett said.
The rampage began Tuesday afternoon when McLendon shot and killed his mother before setting fire to the home he shared with her in Kinston, near the Alabama-Florida state line. He then headed to Samson, where he opened fire on his uncle's front porch as his uncle and other relatives stood outside with the neighbors from across the street.
Those neighbors happened to be the family of Geneva County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Myers, who was later involved in a shoot-out with the gunman, unaware that McLendon had shot and killed his wife and young daughter and critically injured his nearly 4-month-old baby, Ella Kay.
Five people, including Myers' wife and their 1½-year-old daughter, Corinne Gracy, were killed on the porch. McLendon then opened fire on his grandmother, who was standing in the doorway of her home next door.
Alina Knowles was in her home in Samson when she heard the gunman fire on the porch so many times that it sounded like a horror film.
After the shooting stopped, Knowles saw the gunman flee the area and drive around the block.
Knowles, a certified nurse assistant, looked around for survivors. She saw members of Myers' family dead on the porch, but nobody's chest was moving to signal they were alive.
Then she heard Myers' baby girl, Ella Kay, crying.
"
Picked her up, came between the two vehicles," she said. "Saw him coming up the road, ducked so he wouldn't see me, as he was coming up this way I ducked, was still ducking and moving around their van trying to keep him from seeing me with that baby."
Knowles said she knew if she wasn't careful, the gunman would target her.
"I would have been dead," she told CNN. "I would have been on that ground there."
Knowles was able to get the deputy's child and herself to safety. But the horror of the events sticks with her.
"I was scared," she said. "The scene I saw, there was no words for it. None at all. There is no describing what I saw."
McLendon then shot and killed two bystanders in Samson before heading to the Reliable Metal Products plant in nearby Geneva. There, he exchanged fire with Myers and another officer in the parking lot before entering the building, where he shot and killed himself.
"We truly are shocked at this," the director of the Alabama Department of Public Safety, Col. Christopher Murphy, said. "This event formed the single deadliest crime recorded in Alabama."
McLendon -- who had no known criminal record before carrying out Tuesday's rampage -- worked briefly as a police officer in Samson, but failed to complete the "required training" at the police academy in Montgomery in 2003, according to Alabama State Trooper Capt. Marc McHenry.
He "didn't last a week and a half" at the police academy and received no firearms training there, Murphy said.
King, the mayor of Samson, said he knew the shooter and all of the victims in the small southern Alabama town.
"I coached him in both T-ball and Little League baseball along with my two sons," he said of the shooter.
McLendon worked nearly two years at food manufacturer and distributor Kelley Foods in Elba, about 25 miles north of Samson.
He quit his job last week, the company said in a statement. The company didn't specify what his position was, but said in a statement that he was a "reliable team leader" who was well-liked.
"I can't describe what happened, why it happened," Geneva County Sheriff Greg Ward told CNN affiliate WTVY. "It's just a sad day for Geneva County."
"He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business," said Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith.
Smith represents Geneva County, where all but one of the victims were killed. Smith said she had been briefed about the incident by state and local law enforcement.
Another mass killing occurred in southern Alabama in 2002, when Westley Devon Harris gunned down six members of his 16-year-old girlfriend's family at their farm in Luverne. Harris was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty in 2005.
Gunman in Alabama slayings was briefly a police officer - CNN.com