MILWAUKEE – The city of Milwaukee was in mourning a day after a brewery employee fatally shot five people at the city's Molson Coors campus before killing himself Wednesday in one of the worst mass shootings in Wisconsin history.

The alleged gunman was identified as Anthony N. Ferrill, 51, who had worked as an electrician for more than 20 years, according to a law enforcement source who spoke to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and online employment records.

Mayor Tom Barrett called it the "saddest day" in the 165-year history of the iconic "Miller Valley," where a massive red Miller sign towers over a sprawling complex that includes one of the nation's largest breweries and packaging and distribution centers.

Hours before the rampage, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called on lawmakers to take up legislation aimed at keeping guns away from people who are dangerous.

In response, state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, a Republican, made it clear that Wisconsin's gun laws would not change under a Republican-controlled Legislature.

"We’re going to have that discussion about the Second Amendment forever," Fitzgerald said in Franklin, about an hour before the killings. "A lot of the provisions that are in place already, people are satisfied with."

A short time after, the 51-year-old man entered the factory with two handguns, firing on employees.

Who are the victims?

The five victims were all employees of Molson Coors Beverage, which was renamed from MillerCoors in 2019.

The victims are:

Jesus Valle Jr., 33 of Milwaukee

Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon

Trevor Wetselaar, 33, of Milwaukee

Dana Walk, 57, of Delafield

Dale Hudson, 50, of Waukesha

They were power house operators, machinists and electricians, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales said.

“There were five individuals who went to work today, just like everybody goes to work, and they thought they were going to go to work, finish their day and return to their families. They didn’t – and tragically, they never will,” Barrett said.

Who was the gunman?

Ferrill had been involved in a long-running dispute with a co-worker that boiled over before he started shooting, a law enforcement source told the Journal Sentinel.

A co-worker who asked not to be identified for fear of being disciplined said Ferrill believed he was being discriminated against because he was African American, and that he frequently argued with at least one of the victims, a fellow electrician.

The co-worker said Ferrill frequently watched movies on his phone during the day, which the other electrician took issue with, and that the two accused each other of going into each others' offices and stealing tools or tampering with computer equipment.

About a year ago, the employee said, Ferrill started saying he believed Miller workers were coming into his home, bugging his computer and moving chairs around.

But another co-worker, Keith Giese, said Ferrill seemed fine when he last saw him earlier this week.

"I never had a clue. I talked to him a couple of days ago and he seemed fine to me," Giese said. "I had no idea that there was a problem, that somebody could snap like that."

Ferrill was a licensed industrial journeyman electrician a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Milwaukee. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1987 to 1991 and was honorably discharged, according to Rick Flowers of Milwaukee County Veterans’ Services.

What happened during the shooting?

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that employees were notified by email that an active shooter was in or near the second-floor stairwell of the factory’s Building 4. The suspect and victims were found dead in the same building, Morales said.

What type of gun was used in the attack?

The Journal Sentinel, citing a police source, said the shooter was armed with two handguns, including one with a silencer. The make and model of the weapons remained unknown Thursday.

Silencers or suppressors are legal in 42 states, including Wisconsin, but must be registered under the National Firearms Act. More than 29,000 are registered in the Badger State, the Journal Sentinel reported.

What’s the history of mass shootings in Wisconsin?

Wednesday’s attack marked the state’s 11th mass shooting since 2004 but the first in Milwaukee in nearly eight years.

In August 2012, a white supremacist killed six people and injured four at a Sikh temple in suburban Oak Creek, then killed himself after being wounded in a shootout with police.

Seven years earlier, a man fatally shot seven people and wounded four others at a church service inside the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, another Milwaukee suburb, the area's deadliest mass shooting in the past 20 years.

Contributing: Steve Kiggins and Ryan Miller, USA TODAY; Annysa Johnson, Rick Barrett, John Diedrich, Molly Beck and Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; The Associated Press