After a tense period of waiting, as officers from departments all over the region gathered near the complex, the Aurora Police Department said the gunman had been taken into custody. By late afternoon, the Kane County Coroner’s Office said that more than one person had died and that it was responding to the scene. Officials said that the injured police officers were in stable condition.
Several area hospitals were receiving the injured, authorities said, though it was not yet clear how many people were hurt in all. One hospital, Rush Copley, said it was treating three patients for non-life-threatening injuries. Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital said it was treating one patient from the shooting, and Advocate Lutheran General Hospital said it was treating another. Presence Mercy Medical Center in Aurora received three patients, a spokesman said. Two of them were being treated and the third was transferred by helicopter to another hospital. Their conditions were not known.
Numerous firetrucks, ambulances and police squad cars filled a neighborhood of houses and warehouses in Aurora, a city of 200,000 residents about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. Many waited outside a large, brown industrial facility.
John Probst, who was in the building at the time of the shooting, told ABC 7 Chicago he recognized the gunman as a co-worker at the Henry Pratt Co., a company founded in 1901 which designs valves and control devices used in water and power systems.
He said he saw the gunman “running down the aisle” with a pistol that had a green laser attached to it.
He saw one person who was shot and “was bleeding pretty bad.” He believed there were others who had been shot in the office. He said he and another co-worker ran out the back door, and he heard more shots once he was outside.
The Henry Pratt Co.’s website says that the company’s headquarters is in Aurora, and that it also has manufacturing facilities in Washington state and Indiana. Company officials did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Local schools ordered students to shelter in place for more than an hour; the lockdown was lifted after the gunman was in custody, officials said. Still, officers could be seen searching through the area in small clusters, as the investigation continued, and officials from the coroner’s office arrived.
By late afternoon, political leaders began issuing news releases and posting messages on social media offering sympathy and support. The White House said that President Donald Trump had been briefed on the situation and was monitoring it.
“I am monitoring the shooting in Aurora and encourage all residents to follow the directives of their local law enforcement,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker wrote.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.