Inspection Detail

Inspection: 314447632 - Lehigh Southwest Cement Company

Inspection Information - Office: Sacramento Mining & Tunneling District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 4:15 a.m. on October 5, 2011, Employee #1, Employee #2, and Employee #3, and an unknown number of coworkers, were attending a routine safety meeting at Lehigh Southwest Cement Company in Cupertino, CA. One of the coworkers repeatedly yelled, "You think you can f- with me?" as he shot Employee #1 through Employee #3 with a handgun and an assault rifle. Six other male coworkers were wounded. Employee #1 through Employee #3 were killed. Upon further investigation, it was learned that the coworker responsible for the shootings had been upset about being reprimanded for "making a lot of mistakes" and for being involved in "more accidents in the last year or two than people have done over 20 years." In addition, a longtime friend of the coworker responsible for the shootings, a member of the African American Community Service Agency in San Jose, said, "my friend felt that there was some discrimination on that job, but I had the impression he had it under control. He told me he thought the company was singling out older employees for layoffs so it could hire less-expensive, younger workers. He also felt that he encountered discrimination because he was the only black person in the job that he had. He applied for a supervisor job, and they gave it to a person with less experience than him who was not African American. He thought that maybe they didn't like black folks." At approximately 7:30 a.m. on October 6, 2011, the coworker responsible for the shootings was killed by three Santa Clara County Sheriff Deputies. (Note: The injured workers are not listed on the injury line.)

Keywords: WORKPLACE VIOLENCE