(Photos from KCSO)
Just after lunch on the 15th of February, 2019, a disgruntled former employee returned to the Henry Pratt facility at 641 Archer in Aurora and began an ordeal that ended the lives of 5 men, and permanently changed the lives of many others.
Gary Montez Martin, 45, who had recently been fired from his position with the company, about two weeks earlier, opened fire on employees at the facility at around 1:24pm, killing 5 and injuring 7 in a 90-minute rampage that ended with his death at the hands of law enforcement.
Now-retired former Aurora Chief of Police Kristen Ziman, speaking on the Justa Coupla Guys podcast, explained her experience on that dark day.
“On February 15th at 1:24 in the afternoon, on a Friday, I was sitting in my office with a commander. And we were talking about very important police stuff. He was sharing with me a recipe for lemon caper sauce that he put on his fish. So very important police stuff. Commander Jack Fichtel. He’s a foodie. And so that’s what he was doing, showing me pictures of the food he made the night before and sharing the recipe. And another commander ran in and said ‘Chief, are you listened to the radio?’
“And I wasn’t, I had it on, but I wasn’t, neither of us were paying attention. And he said ‘there’s an active shooter.’
“I don’t know how to describe that moment, because I think I looked at him and, and said, ‘what did you just say?’ as if his words didn’t compute for me. And then he said it again, and now I turned my radio up. And then we just started running, just tripping over each other. And we got in the car. And as I’m in the car, Commander Keith Cross, who is now the chief, is driving, and Commander Fichtel. And all I heard was officer Marco Gomez ‘I’m shot. We don’t know where the shooter is. He’s shooting, you know, we’re, we’re trying to locate him.’ And then I hear officer Sepulski is shot. And then, as I’m thinking, everything starts to play in slow motion.”
(Listen to more of Ziman’s riveting account below. It begins at about 40:00)
The event shocked the nation, raising calls for more vigorous gun control legislation and a reassessment of workplace safety.
“It’s a shame that mass shootings such as this have become commonplace in our country [and] that a cold and heartless offender would be so selfish as to think he has the right to take an innocent life. But we as a society cannot allow these horrific acts to become commonplace,” Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin said at the time.
The five men who were killed, ranging in age from 21 to 55, were Russel Beyer, Vicente Juarez, Clayton Parks, Josh Pinkard and Trevor Wehner.
Later investigation discovered that Martin was carrying a weapon illegally, given his previous felony conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi. The state of Illinois had initially granted Martin a FOID card to possess firearms, but rescinded that when Martin applied for a concealed carry permit and his prior felony was belatedly discovered. According to authorities, he had been informed that his license had been revoked and that he was required to turn in any firearms he possessed, but did not comply.
