Four dead after gunman opens fire at workplace

ST. LOUIS -- A man killed the mother of his child, then went to the catering company where he worked and killed two other women before turning the gun on himself, police said Tuesday. One other woman also was wounded, but is in stable condition.

Police said the gunman, Herbert Chalmers Jr., killed 53-year-old Sylvia Haynes at her apartment Tuesday morning. Hours later, he went to a Wal-Mart and bragged about his planned shooting spree, then went to his workplace, Finninger's Catering Service, police said.

Police said Haynes and Chalmers had a child together, but their relationship is unclear. Neighbor Byron Lovett said Haynes kept to herself.

"Not too many people knew her business," he said.

At Finninger's, he reportedly went gunning for his bosses. One of the women killed was an owner of the business, Cleo Finninger, 79, according to Susan Akscin, Finninger's niece. The other was Cleo Finninger's adult daughter, Christine Politte, 44, who oversaw payroll for the company that employed about 50 people, according to relatives and employees.

Both women were shot in a garage area of the business, said Wellston Police Col. Maurice Brown. The business is in St. Louis but sits at the Wellston town line.

Chalmers killed himself in the parking lot.

Chalmers was described as a disgruntled former employee. Some said he may have been angered after being told his wages would be garnisheed to pay child support, and may have been fired after failing to show up for work a day earlier.

Employee Colette Meissner said she was in the kitchen when she heard shots. She said the gunman was screaming the names of people he aimed to kill.

He shouted Charlie, referring to Cleo Finninger's husband, Charles Finninger. The elderly owner was in a wheelchair, and Meissner pushed him into a walk-in cooler.

There, they huddled with another employee and listened as the shots went on and on.

"I shut the door and we all stood in there and prayed," Meissner said. "We were scared to death."

After it became silent, Meissner walked out and found the inside of the building covered in blood.

Brown said the suspect was overheard earlier Tuesday inside a Wal-Mart store bragging that he planned to shoot his boss. Wal-Mart employees called police. Shots were being fired at the catering company as police arrived about 1:30 p.m., Brown said.

St. Louis police said the women who were killed were running away from the shooter with other employees, who fled out the back of the catering shop. The gunman was using a semiautomatic handgun.

Walter Harper, who owns Harper's Groceries down the street from the catering business, said he saw both women on the ground. Even after they were wounded and apparently dead, the gunman just kept shooting, Harper said.

Finninger's employee Martin Lee said he had just returned from a catering run and saw his co-workers running and shouting.

He said the gunman had worked at the business for a couple of years. "He seemed like a pretty nice guy," Lee said.

Employee Dawn Flowers, still wearing her red apron, cried as she recalled seeing the gunman enter through a back door carrying a duffel bag and a coat over his arm. She believed the coat was hiding the gun.

"I was hid; I was in the back cooking. He came through the back door just past me," Flowers said.

Finninger's has operated in St. Louis for about three decades, according to STLtoday.com, the Web site for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which said the company provides more than 10,000 meals a day.

The workplace shooting was believed to be the worst in Missouri since July 2003, when Jonathon Russell 25, shot and killed three co-workers and wounded five others at the Modine Manufacturing Co. in Jefferson City, before killing himself.