Thursday morning, Jan. 7, a disgruntled engineering company employee entered ABB Power, shot eight workers – of which three died. Police then discovered the gunman, Timothy Hendron of Webster Groves, dead. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Hendron was a plaintiff in a class-action federal lawsuit against ABB and its pension review committee over financial losses. A bench trial over the suit was held Tuesday and Wednesday in Kansas City and resumed this morning, Thursday.

This incident comes after a Las Vegas shooting at a federal courthouse in which the shooter also had taken and lost legal action against a federal agency.

According to W. Barry Nixon, executive director of the National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, said that when considering the potential of workplace violence, “The initial step is to assess the potential threat of workplace violence based on the nature of your business and on the types of facilities and their locations.” The possible types of workplace violence include:

Violence perpetrated by a stranger (generally robbery is the goal);

Violence perpetrated by a current or former employee;

Violence perpetrated by a relative, spouse, ex-spouse or individual with a personal relationship with an employee; and

Violence perpetrated by a customer, client or contractor.

In most prior incidents, there were indications of trouble to come.

Nixon’s latest Security Magazine article is at http://www.securitymagazine.com/Articles/Feature_Article/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000589037