Multiple people were killed in a shooting Wednesday afternoon at the sprawling Milwaukee campus of Molson Coors, one of the world’s largest brewers of beer, officials said.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the fatalities – the number of which he did not specify – included the shooter.
“It is a horrible, horrible day for the employees here and it is a rough day for anybody close to this situation,” Barrett said in brief remarks to reporters.
Authorities first described the scene as “active” and as a “critical incident” in a pair of Twitter posts around 2:30 p.m. local time. Live footage from near the facility showed a massive police response, from Milwaukee officers and SWAT teams to federal officials from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The company told employees in an email that there was an “active shooter” in the building and advised workers to hide in place, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The advisory warned employees that the shooter was located in the second-floor stairwell of one of the campus buildings.
Molson Coors said on Twitter, roughly two hours after initial reports of the shooting surfaced, that the scene is “an active situation.”
“Our top priority is our employees and we’ll provide updates in conjunction with the police as we are able,” the company wrote.
Alderman Russell Stamper, who represents the complex’s district, told reporters that he knows many people who work at Molson Coors.
“It’s super sad. It’s a horrible situation,” he said. “I’m hurt. This is not a good day right now.”
The husband of a Molson Coors employee told the Journal Sentinel that his wife was in lockdown with her coworkers, texting him from a room on the campus.
At least 600 people work at the complex, which houses both corporate offices and brewing facilities, according to the Associated Press.
Legions of police and firefighters taped off streets around the building and asked the public to stay away from the scene.
The company recently announced a restructuring plan that would move corporate jobs to the Milwaukee office, expanding the considerable workforce there and closing its office in Denver. The consolidation also led to a rebranding of the Wisconsin institution long known as Miller Brewing, which was founded in Milwaukee in 1855.
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