Police: Cummins shooting suspect had bullets near desk; 911 call released

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A man who shot and killed his supervisor before turning the gun on himself at Cummins Seymour Technical Center had 45 bullets left when it was over, police report.

Police also believe Qing Chen, 37, of Seymour fired three or four shots from his 9mm Glock handgun during the incident Thursday morning that left both Chen and his supervisor, Ward R. Edwards II, 49, of Columbus, dead.

Assistant Police Chief Craig Hayes said Monday police found one bullet in the chamber of the handgun, a magazine containing 10 bullets in the gun and two magazines, each containing 17 bullets, in Chen’s pockets.

Chen also had another 23 bullets in a bag that was near a desk he had been working at before going into the small meeting room on the second floor of the technical center, Hayes said.

Cummins has a no-gun workplace policy, although state law allows those with a handgun license to keep handguns in their vehicles at work as long as the vehicles are locked and the weapons are hidden.

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Hayes said police also are awaiting additional forensics information before releasing the exact number of times Chen fired his gun.

There were no guns or ammunition found in Chen’s car, which was in the parking lot; however, four other guns and additional ammunition were located in Chen’s apartment on Sycamore Road in Seymour. He had a permit for the 9mm Glock used in the shooting and had purchased the gun in 2012 in Plainfield.

Other evidence collected as part of the search for a motive behind the murder-suicide includes a 911 call released Monday morning by Seymour police.

At the beginning of that call, a man tells dispatchers there’s an “active shooter” situation at the tech center on East Fourth Street.

The man said he did not know if the shooter was still in the building.

“We have two injured people in the upstairs in a conference room,” he said.

He said he did not see anybody unusual or anybody running, and the building was being evacuated.

Both a county dispatcher, who handled the call initially, and a city dispatcher remained calm through the 2:37-minute call. The man making the call also remains calm throughout the call as he talks about the location of the shooter, the two people injured in the shooting and the evacuation of the tech center.

Employees streamed out of the tech center and plant in several directions after the incident reported at 8:44 a.m. Those employees later were allowed to return to the center and plant to get their belongings before being released.

Hayes said Monday police efforts to learn more about the incident continue, including how Chen was able to get the gun into the building and why he shot and killed Ward. Police are waiting to get the personnel files for Chen and Ward, Hayes said.

“They (Cummins) are cooperating with the investigation, but it’s going to take some time,” he said.

Police also are examining the computers and cellphones Chen might have used along with similar equipment belonging to Ward and Cummins in an effort to determine a motive.

“We don’t have it all yet,” Hayes said of evidence. “It’s probably going to take a couple of weeks.”

The incident was confined to a small room, 6 feet by 8 feet at the most, and no one could see what was going on, Hayes said.

Hayes said police have talked with people who worked with Chen and some of his acquaintances. Hayes also spent a good part of the weekend on the telephone with the Chinese consulate in Chicago, he said.

Chen has a father and a sister in China, and they are making arrangements to come here and take care of Chen’s affairs, Hayes said.

“He has no other relatives that we know of in the United States,” Hayes said of Chen, who was an engineer with Cummins and was here on a five-year work visa. Chen also was reportedly a 2009 graduate of Georgia Tech.

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