Madeline Buckley

madeline.buckley@indystar.com

A man with a seemingly calm voiced told a dispatcher that an active shooter at Cummins left two people injured in a conference room at the company’s Seymour facility.

“We have an active shooter situation,” the man told the 911 dispatcher.

The 911 call was released amid a Seymour police investigation into why an employee shot a manager at the Seymour Engine Plant’s technical facility, and then killed himself.

Police say Qing Chen, 37, Seymour, shot and killed Ward Edwards, his direct supervisor, on Thursday. The workplace shooting spurred an evacuation of the 1,100-employee facility, and shocked the city of 19,000, about 60 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

The 911 call reveals little about the nature of the shooting, and the question plaguing many Seymour residents and Cummins employees: Why?

Assistant Seymour Police Chief Craig Hayes said the department could not release a police report because investigators had not compiled one yet.

The 911 caller in the audio clip released by police said he was at the entrance to the building. He was not near the Edwards and Chen when he called.

The caller described how employees where leaving the building, fleeing to the parking lot.

Seymour police searched Chen's apartment and found three rifles and a handgun, in addition to the 9 mm Glock he used in the shooting. Chen worked as an engineer for Cummins since April of 2011, according to his LinkedIn page, which has since been taken down.

Friends of Edwards described him as a “gentle soul” who went on camping trips with his son’s boy scout troop, and was active in his church.

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