MILWAUKEE—In a city renowned for its brewing tradition, the sprawling Molson Coors campus was an icon in itself, a place known for decades to Milwaukee locals as the old Miller Brewery. But Wednesday afternoon, officials said, a worker still in his uniform stormed the facility and began shooting.

He killed five people, all fellow employees.

“It’s frightening,” said Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat whose district includes Milwaukee. “It’s anathema to the kind of culture that we expect. This is heartbreaking because Milwaukee is a very friendly city.”

The police chief, Alfonso Morales, said the gunman, a 51-year-old from Milwaukee, was dead and had appeared to have killed himself after the attack. He said police were continuing to search the more than 20 buildings on the Molson Coors campus, where about 1,000 people work. Late into the evening Wednesday, some workers remained stuck inside the complex waiting for police to finish their search.

As police officers with rifles stood near the site of the shooting Wednesday evening, residents gathered in shock.

“I heard the sirens and came out to see what was going on,” said Shelly Zais, 59, who lives nearby. “I figured someone had to be killed; there were so many sirens. I knew it was different.”

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat whose district includes the Molson Coors complex, said the facility was a point of pride in Milwaukee. The company, still known to many in the area by its former name, MillerCoors, continued to invest in the city and pay competitive wages even when some other employers left.

In October, Molson Coors announced that it was closing its Denver office and shifting some jobs to Milwaukee, as part of a corporate restructuring plan that was expected to result in the loss of 400 to 500 jobs across the company.

“The district has changed over the years, and so has the community surrounding MillerCoors — and they stayed,” Johnson said. “They’re committed.”

Morales said Molson Coors executives were travelling to Milwaukee and were expected to provide more information late Wednesday.

“Our top priority is our employees, and we’ll provide updates in conjunction with the police as we are able,” the company said in a statement.

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In recent decades, there has been a spate of mass shootings in U.S. workplaces.

Last February, a disgruntled employee who had been fired from his job returned to a suburban Chicago factory in Aurora, Ill., with a .40-calibre Smith & Wesson handgun with a laser sight, which authorities said he used to kill five of his former co-workers. In 2010, a man caught stealing beer from a distribution warehouse in Manchester, Conn., shot and killed eight people and took his own life after offering his resignation. In 2003, an employee of military contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. killed seven people at a company plant near Meridian, Miss., before turning a gun on himself.

Kiandre Ford, 27, who works in the lobby of the Harley-Davidson building nearby, said he got a phone call requesting that the building be locked down after the company alerted that there was an active shooter in the area.

“We heard from higher-ups — I didn’t know what was going on myself,” Ford said. “I got a call, and the Harley-Davidson building is now on lockdown.”

The complex is in the heart of Milwaukee’s Miller Valley, about five kilometres west of downtown, and includes a corporate office, a skywalk and a health and fitness centre, according to Hunzinger Construction Co., which renovated the campus.

As officials gathered at the shooting scene, workers and their friends waited nervously to learn the names of the victims. Lt.-Gov. Mandela Barnes, who said he had made frequent visits to the complex over the years, was among those bracing for the news.

“I’ve socialized with a lot of folks who work in those halls; I’ve spent time with them,” Barnes said, adding that he was “afraid to see whose lives were lost in this tragedy.”