In what may be the latest incident of workplace violence relating to potential unemployment, an employee who believed he was about to be terminated from a Wal-Mart Store in South Reno, Nevada opened fire on three supervisory employees at the store he had worked.
Reno Police Chief Steve Pitts, at a press conference on Monday, November 1 offered this narrative of the incident:
About 7:30 AM, John Dennis Gillane, 45, parked his vehicle and entered the store where he had worked for nine years. He had two weapons with him, a Llama 44-magnum revolver and a Taurus .40 caliber semi-automatic gun.
He then went to the sporting goods section of the store, and purchased ammunition for the weapons. According to his statement to the police, Mr. Gillane then went to the stockroom of the store where he loaded his weapons with the ammunition he bought at the Wal-Mart Store.
He then laid in wait until 9 AM when a member of the store’s management team arrived. Gillane pointed a gun at the manager and demanded he summon to other supervisors to the office. Video surveillance released by the police showed a manager running down the hallway being pursued by Gillane, Gillane is next seen shooting the man, and then turning his fire on the two other individuals. In all he fired four shots from his automatic weapon, two struck one man in the torso, while one man was shot in the leg, and the other in the torso
The Wal-Mart store was evacuated, and police were able to evacuated the wounded employees after Mr. Gillane barricaded himself in the office, After a stand off lasting about 5 hours, during which Mr. Gillane negotiated the members of the Reno Police Crisis Intervention Team, he surrendered without incident at about 2:30 PM
Wal-Mart officials released a statement on Monday that there were no plans to fire Mr. Gillane. Police Chief Pitts said that it was clear that Mr. Gillane was not summoned to the store to be terminated as suggested in initial news reports, but his arrival at the store was unexpected, as he was not scheduled to report to work on the day of the attack. Police did confirm that during his interview at the police station, Mr. Gillane did say he had “grievances” and may well have expected to be laid off or terminated.
It was unknown why he chose that day to confront the managers at gunpoint. Earlier reports had suggested the incident was related to a possible retaliation attack due to a firing or planned termination however as more and more facts become known, the motivations behind the attack remain murky.
The three victims, whose names have not been released to the press, were taken to local hospitals. Two remain in intensive care and the third was released after receiving treatment,
Gillane has been charged with three counts of attempted murder, two counts of battery with substantial harm and one count of battery with a deadly weapon according to a local news report.
Many have pointed to this incident as just the first of increased incidences of violence due to unemployment. While Wal-Mart officials were adamant that there was no action contemplated or planned to terminate Mr. Gillane, it is clear, at least according to the statement that Mr. Gillane gave police after his arrest that he thought that he was about to be terminated.
More and more some unemployed are making statements which have been interpreted by some observers to be advocating violent reaction to not only the continued high unemployment but also the lack of a Tier 5 and continued concerns about the looming vote to regarding unemployment extension when the Congress meets again in Washington. Just last week, the Indiana Unemployment Agency announced that it was deploying armed security personnel at its state unemployment offices to guards against the potential for violence.
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Desperate times…desperate measures!!!
This is a terrible thing that happened! It will be more common place if UI benefits are not extended or the Tier 5 is not approved! People need stability in their lives… we are all creatures of habit and when something as devistating as losing your job comes into play some people will turn to extreme measures.
Imagine what will happen to the 30 million Americans who will no longer be able to provide for their families??!! Congress needs to be very aware of what this will do especially with the upcoming holidays! Bad enough there will be a lot families not having a Thanksgiving but NOT be able to provide even a gift at Christmas!! I dare not think of what will happen across this country!!!!
Happy holidays indeed!!!!
Great article Michael Colliss! I had no idea of the details of the shooting, very informative.
I hate to say it but it’s possible that the Wal-Mart is lieing, that they did intend to fire him that day but didn’t want that added bad press. Why else would they call him in on his day off like that? Did they ever say why they really called him in?
If it was for some sort of store meeting, typically those are made known in advance. There is very little that warrants calling someone in on their day off unless they are given advanced notice.
I mean if you stop and think about all the times in your life that you’ve been called into work on your day off. I can’t really think of many. What I can see is the cruelty of the managers that they OBVIOUSLY did not tell him over the phone what he was called in for. I know quite a few managers who are like that. They’ll call someone in but what say what its for because they get a kick out of torturing employees. If they would have simply told him, we are calling you in for this __, then the tragedy could have been averted. I think what he did was horrible, but If anything, hopefully they’ll change their policy on calling people in without telling them what it is for. If he truly wasn’t being fired, which I think might be a lie.
*won’t say what it’s for*
Hello David,
Thank you for your comment. My intent in writing this article was to try and offer some basic news about this very sad incident. Many reports when the incident first happened were headed with the lines such as “terminated employee opens fire at Wal-Mart” or something like that. Looking at the reports – particularly the press conference of the Reno police – it does seem that it is far more murky as to why Mr. Gillane allegedly (remember he is innocent until convicted) committed the shootings.
I tried to report just the facts and not try and come to conclusions as to motivations. While it is possible, certainly that Wal-Mart may be covering up some facts, there is, at this very early stage little to even begin to conclude that, and even make that assumption.
Also, Wal-Mart clearly stated that Mr. Gillane was not called into the store for any meeting, As stated at the press conference Wal-Mart stated that they had not – repeat not – called Mr. Gillane into the store for any reason. He came in on his own on a regularly scheduled day off. As stated in the above story:
“Wal-Mart officials released a statement on Monday that there were no plans to fire Mr. Gillane. Police Chief Pitts said that it was clear that Mr. Gillane was not summoned to the store to be terminated as suggested in initial news reports, but his arrival at the store was unexpected, as he was not scheduled to report to work on the day of the attack. Police did confirm that during his interview at the police station, Mr. Gillane did say he had “grievances” and may well have expected to be laid off or terminated.”
While some people may immediately assume that a corporation will lie to protect its positions (and of course this does happen) I think that it is premature to reach that conclusion in this particular case.
It may well be some months or longer until more information is revealed in Court proceedings, it is probably a good idea to give the victim in this case (the Wal-Mart) employees the same benefit of the doubt that Mr. Gillane will be accorded at his trial.
I am sure you will agree that workplace violence is by its very nature irrational and there may have been a lot of other things going on in the life of Mr. Gillane. I do not what you to think that I am justifying or excusing workplace violence in any way. I am saying that we probably will have to wait a while before all the many aspects of this case are revealed, probably at the trial.
Michael Colliss
I am certain we will later find there were multiple stresses leading to Mr. Gillanes action.
Threatened employment was not his sole issue, it was the triggering event, the final straw.
Hello Just Logic
I could not agree with your comment more. Based on the Wal-Mart statement, and preliminary conclusions of the Reno police as stated in the press conference of Reno PD Chief Pitts, Mr. Gillane was not scheduled to come into the store for work and, according the Wal-Mart people was not asked to come on and there were no plans to layoff or terminate him. I think at this point we must take the Wal-Mart and police statements at face value.
I also agree that it is entirely possible that Mr. Gillane may have thought he was about to be laid off, but without knowledge of that this was going to happen. I think most people will agree that workplace violence is an irrational act and it seems hard to apply rational thinking or conclusions to an act that had as its core irrationality.
You are right, we know nothing of the others things happening in Mr. Gillane’s life and his perception (justified or not) that he was about to be terminated may have been the final straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak – or “stressor” – which may have pushed him physiologically into this act of violence.
It may be weeks or months before the full picture comes out at any trial. I also think that it is no one’s intention here to somehow justify the violence because of fears of impending unemployment. I know you agree.
Michael Colliss
I guess you teabaggers consider this loser some kind of hero.
I think even if the managers would have called this person to come into the office to announce they were firing him, this shooting incident would have happened either way no matter if the managers of Walmart called or not.
Some people are already hell bent set and have the intention of taking matters into their own hands. They will just do about anything to get their message across that they are frustrated and fed up enough to be treated in an inhumane manner and they are not taking it anymore.
The long-term unemployed have been fighting an up hill public opinion battle for a while now. Some of the blogs on a few other sites are starting to take a very dark turn. There is one gentleman writing on one of those sites that is starting to remind me of the Robert DeNiro character in Taxi Driver. Some of the reader comments on his opinion pieces are getting downright scary. I understand people are desperate but appearing to use unemployment as a reason to promote or otherwise incite violence would be the complete end of any and all remaining public support.
It’s sad to say there are no real choices in this election. Both political parties are to blame for this mess we are in and it’s really difficult to make a real choice on who is better and qualified enough to lead our country to get things done in a positive and constructive way instead of bickering and fighting all the dam time.
I hope I am wrong and things truly change because I don’t want to see the same old politics as usual. I want to see progress so we can all have better lives but it remains to be seen what will happen when the final decision and the outcome on this election is decided tonight. The moment of truth has arrived.
Its just the start of whats become .
Michael – I think in this economy we all have some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Even for those employed there are almost daily in some instances inferences that if you don’t like or do IT someone else will very gladly, so no room for compliants let alone assurances. They well know if unemp there are no options – thus even with 9 years this individual knew his job/life was “on the line”. Doctors will confirm it’s not what was actually happening in any circumstance (including war) but what was in the mind of the individual that COULD HAPPEN!
In my local area the headlines today were local Catholic hospital laid off 28 employees (out of 500 – 600). Some of these were individuals with over 20 years emp but the article gave the usual “don’t take it personally” and we’re really doing this to SAVE more jobs, etc. I ‘know’ in a business sense what they mean but to those affected this was their world, financial, career, office family, etc. I know this is just a small mini picture of our world today and that there are no safe zones of fairness — just GREED. How sad…
Tier 5 is needed and its gonna get worse before it gets better. Theft has gone up and the numbers are getting higher from the people who are losing everything. From shoplifting to home burglary. Well what you expect them to do ? Republicans dont care. Democrats are not any better. I have lost everything. I enjoy posting this from a library computer.