UPDATE: 2 dead, 1 wounded in area workplace shootings

Two employees committed shootings at their places of work in unrelated incidents Wednesday in central Virginia, one outside a veterans hospital in Richmond and the other hours later at a Wal-Mart distribution center in Dinwiddie County, authorities said.

The first attack came Wednesday morning when a man was shot in a parking lot outside the McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in South Richmond; he died later at a hospital. The alleged gunman was arrested after a highway pursuit from Charles City County to Hopewell to Chesterfield County.

The second incident unfolded when a man shot and wounded his supervisor and then fatally shot himself after leaving the Wal-Mart distribution center and firing on two Dinwiddie sheriff’s deputies, authorities said.

Authorities did not release a motive for either incident.

The first shooting unfolded about 7:20 a.m. when Cornelius Ivan Hayes, a housekeeper at the VA hospital who lives in Blackstone, shot James Stephenson Lee outside the sprawling hospital facility, according to a federal affidavit for a criminal compliant. The document says that Hayes was seen firing a weapon and witnesses heard three shots.

Hospital employees treated the victim in the parking lot after he was shot in the head and left eye. He then was brought to VCU Medical Center, where officials said he died Wednesday evening.

Authorities said initial indications were that the shooting was not a random act and that there was no reason to evacuate or lock down the hospital and its related clinics.

Immediately after the shooting, area police departments were asked to be on the lookout for a 2005 blue Ford Explorer that the suspect was believed to be driving.

Hayes, 55, was captured after a state trooper spotted Hayes’ vehicle on state Route 5 in Charles City County and began a pursuit that lasted about 10 minutes and did not exceed 65 mph. At one point, the driver stopped but drove away when officers approached on foot, briefly crossing into the eastbound lanes while continuing to travel west. He crossed back into the westbound lanes before he was stopped a final time outside a Wawa convenience store along Route 10, just west of Interstate 295, in Chesterfield.

Officers found a .38-caliber revolver in Hayes’ lap that contained three spent cartridges and two live rounds, according to the affidavit. Federal authorities charged Hayes with being a felon in possession of a firearm, which could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Hayes has convictions in 2001 for assaulting a law enforcement officer and for discharging a gun at an occupied building.

Warehouse shooting

In Dinwiddie, authorities said a shipping department manager at the Wal-Mart distribution center was shot in the leg and is expected to recover from her injuries.

Dinwiddie Sheriff D.T. “Duck” Adams said the gunman fired on deputies but that they were not hit and did not have time to return fire before the man fatally shot himself in the chest just after noon Wednesday.

Adams did not immediately identify the deputies.

“We’re trying to piece things together, but right now we have no motive,” Adams said.

The man, 32, had worked at the distribution center in the 21500 block of Cox Road for nine years, Adams said. The supervisor, 40, has been there 18 years. Both lived in Petersburg.

Adams said sheriff's deputies responded within three minutes of a 12:09 p.m. call of a shooting at the distribution center. The first deputies who arrived saw the man standing just outside the employee entrance and had taken cover when the man fired two shots, missing them, and then shot himself. He was pronounced dead after being taken to Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg.

The sheriff said witnesses told investigators that the gunman had left for lunch about 11 a.m. and the shooting occurred soon after he returned. He walked to his work area in the rear of the building and fired one shot at the supervisor before leaving the facility.

Family members of employees said workers were being sent home about an hour early from a shift that generally did not end until 3:30 p.m.

Adams said about 250 of the plant's approximately 600 workers over all shifts were in the building at the time of the shootings. The 1.1-million-square-foot center opened in 1991 and serves about 72 Wal-Mart stores, said Dinwiddie County Administrator W. Kevin Massengill.

The shooting prompted the temporary lockdown of the distribution center as well as that of Sutherland Elementary, which is less than three-quarters of a mile from the center.

“This is certainly a tragedy anywhere, but for a rural county such as Dinwiddie, it’s very unusual,” he said. “And I’m sure it’s going to cause a lot of people at Wal-Mart to be upset.”

When Demetria Morgan heard about the shootings, she rushed to the center from her job in Richmond to learn about the welfare of her fiancé and father, both of whom work the day shift. She couldn’t reach them by cellphone.

“I began crying because I was scared,” said the Chester resident, as she stood anxiously along Cox Road where other family members of employees were gathering. “If somebody could tell me they’re alive, I’d be completely fine,” she said.

Her worries soon vanished, though, when day shift employees – including her father and fiancé – began pouring out of the building about 2:20 p.m. She shouted with joy and waved to the men as they headed for their cars.

rwilliams@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6332

mbowes@timesdispatch.com

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jmacenka@timesdispatch.com

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