Brewing for years, rage turned deadly at Kraft building

September 11, 2010|By DANA DiFILIPPO, JULIE SHAW, CHRISTINE OLLEY & VALERIE RUSS, difilid@phillynews.com 215-854-5934
Image 1 of 5
  • Police remove body from Kraft Foods building after rampage.
  • Police remove body from Kraft Foods building after rampage.
  • The two employees of the NE plant who were shot dead were LaTonya Brown (above) and Tanya Wilson (below).
  • Neighbor George Harris knew Yvonne Hiller to be friendly.
  • D. Rowland

YVONNE HILLER didn't like LaTonya Brown and Tanya Wilson.

The three worked in the third-floor mixing room at the Kraft Foods plant on Roosevelt Boulevard near Byberry Road in Northeast Philadelphia. Hiller had fought with Brown and Wilson - verbally and physically - for at least two years, accusing them of throwing chemicals at her and talking behind her back.

Thursday night was the latest fight. It led to Hiller's supervisor booting her out of the plant with a suspension. But Hiller refused to go quietly, police said.

The 43-year-old Crescentville woman went to her car, where she kept a .357-caliber Magnum handgun. She returned, pointed it at two unarmed security guards and demanded re-entry, police said.

Story continues below.

She then beelined to the third floor, where she found Brown, 36, Wilson, 47, and two other co-workers in a break room.

She instructed one to leave, saying she had no quarrel with her. Then, according to police, she began blasting away.

She allegedly shot Brown once in the head at close range and Wilson in the side. And she allegedly shot Bryant Dalton, 39, who'd also been involved in the earlier argument, in the neck.

She then hunted down her supervisor in a third-floor hallway and allegedly fired at him but missed.

She also allegedly fired at and missed a heroic Kraft mechanic who followed Hiller, shouting at co-workers to flee and reporting her movements on a cell phone to a 9-1-1 operator and on his walkie-talkie to other employees.

She also fired once at the first officers on the scene, Homicide Capt. James Clark said.

Hiller then hid in a darkened, second-floor office and called 9-1-1, unaware that seven co-workers had cowered in fear in an adjoining room.

" 'I'm the person you're looking for at the Kraft Nabisco building,' " Hiller said to a dispatcher, according to Cpl. Janice Leader.

Leader, a 9-1-1 supervisor, then got on the phone. " 'So, now you want to help me?' " an agitated Hiller said, according to Leader. " 'Now you want to help me?' "

Leader said she spent about 40 minutes on the phone and told Hiller that police were on their way to the room. "I told her, 'Put the gun down. Put the gun down. And put your hands on top of your head so they'll know you're not being aggressive to them,' " Leader said.

SWAT officers stormed the building, apprehended Hiller and freed the hiding co-workers at 9:36 p.m., about 40 minutes after the shooting rampage began.

1 | 2 | 3 | Next »
|
|
|
|
|