South Carolina Workplace Violence

Every South Carolina employer needs to be aware of the possibility of violence in the workplace. Although OSHA reports that homicide in the workplace is decreasing, tragically, violence is still one of the top cause of work-related fatalities. It is second only to work-related auto and highway accidents.

Every South Carolina employer must have a plan in place to prevent violence, and to address it if it occurs.

In October of 2007, a gunman shot broke into a downtown Alexandria, Louisiana law office and shot 5 people, killing two of them. Police responded to the scene, but were held at bay by the gunman for 10 hours. Finally, the police entered the building via the use of explosives. In the ensuing shoot-out between police and the gunman, the gunman was killed.

Several more incidents of violence in the workplace have occurred since the beginning of 2008.

On Valentine’s Day, (February 14,) a former graduate student burst into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb, Illinois and began a shooting spree, wounding 16 and killing 6. The spree ended when the student turned the gun on himself.

The student, Steven Kazmierczak, was described by professors as calm and committed. Police reports stated that Kazmierczak had stopped taking his medications three weeks prior to the shooting and was behaving erratically. Kazmierczak’s girl friend, Jessica Baty, disagreed, claiming Steven wasn’t unduly stressed and had purchased the guns only for security.

A week earlier on February 7, an armed political activist burst into the Kirkwood, Missouri city council meeting and opened fire. Three city officials and two police officers were killed. The mayor of Kirkwood was injured but survived. Apparently the gunman had been tossed of out city council meetings twice before.

On February 2, in Tinley Park, Illinois (a Chicago suburb) a gunman posed as a delivery man in an attempt to rob a Lane Bryant store. Six women were in the store. The gunman bound them with duct tape in a back room, but the store manager managed to call 911. The gunman discovered the call, was enraged and shot all 6 women, killing 5.

These incidents ended in tragedy, emphasizing the need for employers to establish safety protocols against violence on the job. All companies should establish an emergency plan which includes training for supervisors and workers on how to respond to violence, and on what steps to take to help prevent acts of violence at work. South Carolina More Workplace Violence 2

The massacre at Virginia Tech was the worst case of workplace violence in 2007.

It was not the only incident, however, and tragic episodes in Illinois and Missouri are simply the most recent cases of violence in the workplace.

Several other episodes led to tragedy or near-tragedy in 2007.

At an Orlando Denny’s during Labor Day weekend of 2007, a 40-year-old waitress was stabbed to death by her estranged husband. Several families who had recently left Walt Disney World saw the attack at the restaurant on International Drive. Coworkers and customers both pursued the attacker, who fled on foot and escaped over a fence, leaving behind one of his shoes. Paramedics tried to save the waitress, but she died of her wounds.

A tragic event in September on the campus of Delaware State University left two students shot dead. Dover, Delaware police interviewed a student following the early morning shooting outside a college dining hall. University officials put the school on lockdown, and the campus’s roughly 1,700 students were confined to their dormitories. Word of the incident and the lockdown went out on cell phones. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, as well as other law enforcement agencies, assisted local police in the search.

At the University of Wisconsin Madison, police hunted for an apparently suicidal man who threatened to explode a bomb at a local hospital and fired off some shots near it. The bomb threat was a fake, police said, adding that the man was a case of attempted “suicide by cop.” He had apparently hoped to provoke a shoot-out with police in which he would have been killed, officers said.

At Virginia Tech 32 students and staff were killed and 17 injured in the year’s worst tragedy, on April 16, 2007. A heavily armed assailant named Seung-Hui Cho chained the doors of a campus building shut before killing and wounding his victims, then turning his weapon on himself.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Cho demonstrated several warning signs of impending workplace violence. Among other things, he showed an unhealthy interest in weapons.