It’s unclear what led to the Tuesday night shooting at the warehouse in New Albany, about 15 miles northeast of downtown Columbus. The man accused in the attack, Bruce Reginald Foster III, 28, was arraigned Thursday, with bond set at $20 million. He was seeking a court-appointed lawyer and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for next week.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office said Thursday that one of the shooting victims, Shakhar Chapagai, 30, died Wednesday evening at Mount Carmel East, a Columbus hospital.
The other person killed has not been identified. No details have been released about the conditions of the wounded workers.
In 911 calls, workers said some of the victims were shot in the production area. The man who said he took the gun away said he handed the weapon to a supervisor.
New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones said Wednesday that Foster has talked with investigators. “I wouldn’t call him fully cooperative,” Jones said.
Licking County online court records did not list a defense attorney Thursday afternoon but said Foster had applied for a court-appointed lawyer and filed an affidavit of indigency. Two possible phone numbers for Foster or a relative were not working Wednesday.
Police responding to the New Albany industrial park Tuesday night just missed Foster as he took a rideshare away from the scene, Jones said. Teams of police, aided by drones and a police dog, searched the facility.
“It does appear that there was contact between a victim and the shooter,” Jones said. “At this point, I don’t have a clear picture of how involved that contact was.”
Foster was found in an apartment in Columbus and arrested Wednesday morning. Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Dan Deville said a stun gun was used to subdue Foster, who he said had declined to surrender.
The shooting happened at the warehouse for a company that makes products including cosmetics and toiletries. About 150 employees inside the building were evacuated to a nearby building.
“Nobody reported that there was any conflict or that he was in trouble at work,” Jones said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
