Fired UPS worker kills two supervisors, self, in Alabama shooting

[September 24, 2014]  By Sherrel Wheeler Stewart
 
 BIRMINGHAM Ala. (Reuters) - A recently-fired UPS employee on Tuesday shot dead two supervisors at the company facility where he had worked in Birmingham, Alabama, before turning the gun on himself, police said.

The gunman, identified by authorities as Kerry Joe Tesney, 45, was fired earlier this month and had recently received a letter in the mail with the news that he had lost his appeal to get his job back, police said.

Police had earlier said that Tesney, a resident of Trussville, a Birmingham suburb, was fired on Monday.

The shooting occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m. inside a large, brick UPS service center at the top of a hill in the Inglenook section of Birmingham, close to the airport, police said.

Officers found the two victims along with Tesney, who had arrived at the facility in a Honda SUV and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper told reporters.

Police fired no shots, he said.

"When these people came to work today, they had no idea that this would be their last day here on Earth," Roper said.

A handgun believed to be the one used in the shooting has been recovered, police said.

Both of the victims were men, police said. Authorities have not yet released their names.

At least a dozen others were present in the building at the time of the shooting, but no one else was wounded, police said.

A group of grief counselors could be seen entering the UPS facility on Tuesday afternoon.

UPS confirmed the incident and said it was cooperating with police.

(Additional reporting by Colleen Jenkins and Letitia Stein; Writing by Jonathan Kaminsky; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)

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