UPDATE: Wal-Mart employee who killed self had recently returned to work

Credit: EVA RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCH

Wal-Mart trucks were turned away from their distribution center in Dinwiddie County after a shooting Wednesday.

2 dead, 1 wounded in area workplace shootings

By: Mark Bowes | Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: February 23, 2012
Updated: February 23, 2012 - 1:07 PM

A Wal-Mart distribution center employee who shot and wounded his supervisor before fatally shooting himself Wednesday had only recently returned to work after taking several weeks off, Dinwiddie County authorities said today.

Melvin D. Taylor Jr., 33, of the 1400 block of Youngs Road in Petersburg had “taken a couple of months off” under a company policy that allowed workers to take some leave after business slowed following the holidays, said Dinwiddie Maj. William Knott.

“He only recently had returned to work,” Knott said of Taylor, who had been an employee of the distribution center at 21500 Cox Road since 2003.

On Wednesday around noon, Taylor shot his supervisor in the leg where both worked in the shipping area before walking out the front entrance, firing at two responding deputies and then fatally shooting himself in the chest, police said. He was armed with a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

“We still don’t have any more on the motive,” Knott said. “We don’t know at this point whether there was any relationship between (Taylor and the manager) other than a supervisory relationship in the department where they worked. We’re hoping to find out more.”

Investigators hope to conduct a more in-depth interview with the wounded supervisor, a Petersburg woman who has 18 years of service with Wal-Mart.

“We’re concerned about her health and well-being... so we’ve kind of left (additional interviews with her) alone,” Knott said.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)