I was saddened to hear the news report about yet another workplace tragedy. Who wants to go to their job thinking they or their loved ones won’t return home because a coworker goes on a deadly rampage? How will employers address concerns of workers in this tense period of racial and economic strife so that all workers are safe?
As I discovered more about what happened at Hartford Distributors Inc. (HDI) on August 3 – including listening to all of the 911 tapes – I could not help but notice the eery similarities between Omar Thornton of Manchester, Connecticut and Charles “Cookie” Thornton of Kirkwood, Missouri.
Omar Thornton was fired in a meeting with company and Teamsters Local 1035 reps for allegedly stealing beer, acts said to have been captured on video.
In a 911 call from her hiding space during the seige, one coworker described Omar as “the only black guy that works here.” Although he was one of four blacks in the entire company, it is clear that Thornton feel isolated and alone.
Thornton talked often to his girlfriend and friends about what white employees were doing to him at HDI. Finally reaching his breaking point, Omar took matters into his own hands “and handled the problem.”
Cookie Thornton, a 52-year-old lifelong resident of Meacham Park, decided he had enough when he converged on Kirkwood City Hall on February 7, 2008. Before the bullets stopped flying, six people were dead (Cookie was killed by Kirkwood police) and two wounded. Mayor Mike Swoboda died several months later as he battled with cancer and the after-effects of the shooting.
Thornton had a lengthy battle with Kirkwood’s white city officials on a number of issues from 1st Amendment rights to lack of business opportunities.
Omar Thornton was 34-years-old and had been an employee at HDI for a couple of years. After his killing spree, including turning the gun on himself, nine people were dead and two were wounded, making it the state’s biggest workplace massacre in history.
What did the two Thorntons have in common on the day they “went to war” – the words Cookie’s brother used to describe the last encounter Cookie would have with Kirkwood officials?
Both men were described by those who knew them as caring, non-violent men. Omar was soft-spoken while Cookie was outgoing. Both felt they were victims of racism and had experienced no satisfactory resolution.
Most of their victims were intentional, targeted for the perceived role they played in the racial discrimination. Omar targeted company officials and union reps who were present at his termination meeting and co-workers who allegedly committed racist acts against him. Cookie targeted city officials and police.
What hasn’t been widely publicized is that Omar’s girlfriend of eight years is Caucasion. That often becomes an ugly point of contention if your coworkers aren’t down with inter-racial relationships.
Kristi Hannah believed her partner was being set up by the company so they could get rid of him. She encouraged him to document some of the workplace acts on his cell phone, which supposedly included photos of racial slurs and a stick figure being hung on the bathroom walls. Some white workers used the “N” word when referring to Omar. He also complained that his truck was often packed incorrectly, causing him to work late to undo the problems.
Company president Ross Hollander vehemently maintains that Thornton never reported any acts of racial discrimination. If Thornton believed the company was aware of the hostile atmosphere being created for him but failed to do anything about it, he may have seen any further reporting as fruitless. He was sitting on a powder keg.
We may get to the truth in the coming weeks or months about what really happened to Omar Thornton at Hartford Distributors. Or maybe not. In a story in the New York Daily News, Thornton’s racial concerns were confirmed by a former employee of the beer company who claims he witnessed the racist badgering with his own eyes.
There’s a lot to uncover in this story before we know the whole truth. Society has another opportunity to turn a tragedy into humane policies and practices that would prevent further mayhem and murder in the future. Let’s see what we do now.