Police: Demoted worker shoots CEO, kills self in Chicago

[Judi Lynn]

Source: USA Today

Police: Demoted worker shoots CEO, kills self in Chicago
Aamer Madhani, 3:10 p.m. EDT July 31, 2014

CHICAGO – A workplace shooting rattled the city''s financial district Thursday when a newly demoted employee shot and critically wounded his company's CEO, then killed himself, police said.

Police responded to a call of shots fired on the 17th floor of a building located in the 200 block of S. LaSalle Ave., near the Willis Tower skyscraper, at about 9:50 a.m.

Upon reaching the scene, officers found two men, a 54-year-old-victim and a 59-year-old suspect, lying unresponsive on the floor of an office, both with gunshot wounds to the head. The offender was pronounced dead at the scene from a self- inflicted wound. The 54-year-old victim was transported to Northwestern Hospital in critical condition.

Police were investigating the case as a possible attempted murder-suicide.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said the worker pulled a gun on the CEO and the two men struggled before the CEO was shot twice and the gunman fatally shot himself.


Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/31/chicago-shooting-bank-america/13408617/

[valerief]

1. If only there were more guns and more offshoring. Gungeoneer CEO logic.

Company is Arrowstream.

[KansDem]

2. This can happen when 59-year-olds lose their jobs...

...or are "demoted." In either case, financial security becomes a problem. As we have read of late, it's almost impossible for 50-somethings to find a job. What to do? If you believe you're through with life, you take yourself out. And, you might possibly take the person who "killed you" with you. In this case, the CEO.

The One-Percenters had better wake up and see what they're doing to this country and its citizens. They may think they're impervious to such "bad luck," but this incident proves otherwise.

[valerief]

4. The mix of "gun culture" and "middle class dismantling" is lethal. nt

[cosmicone]

8. This assumes that every 50+ employee is a model employee

Without details, I am not ready to say this is the employer's fault -- obviously the 59 year old was off-kilter and there may have been a legitimate reason for demoting him.

[KansDem]

11. The article said the CEO was "downsizing."

He was demoted so the company could save money. Anyway, it might have meant the end of his livelihood and he saw no other recourse but to kill himself. And the person responsible for his dire situation.

[cosmicone]

15. Downsizing is not necessarily bad.

If a company's sales slip and it can only support 90 employees instead of 100, what do you want a company to do? Go bankrupt and put 100 people out of work or just 10?

[KansDem]

17. I don't know...

Ask the 10 who lose their jobs and can't find other work. I would bet they'd have a different opinion than the other 90.

[toddwv]

22. I'm not justifying the shooting or blaming the victim.

But it sounds like the shooter, who had been with the company for over 14 years (the company was founded in 2008), was pivotal to the company's success.

http://www.icstars.org/contact/tony-defrances
DeFrances has brought the vision of total supply chain connectivity and collaboration to life through technology. In developing ArrowStream’s proprietary supply chain technology, he has enabled foodservice and grocery trading partners to achieve an unprecedented level of synchronization and information sharing that delivers measurable cost savings and revenue generating opportunities. The results of DeFrances’ development have helped to facilitate ArrowStream’s continued profitability, including a 65 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) over the last three years and over $85M in revenue in 2008.

With DeFrances at the technology helm since the company’s inception in 2000, ArrowStream was ahead of its time utilizing cloud computing—SaaS model for the development of this cutting-edge technology. Today, this software is the cornerstone of internal support of ArrowStream Logistics’ internal logistics optimization tools and customers’ access to ArrowStream OnDemand, a comprehensive web-based supply chain management system that allows trading partners to view critical supply chain information like pricing, contract, product movement, inventory, freight and more online in real time.

In addition, other news prior to the shooting indicate that the company's rise was centered around their software.


So I'm thinking there must be a lot more behind this story.

http://heavy.com/news/2014/07/tony-defrances-murder-suicide-arrowstream-steven-lavoie/
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111011006188/en/ArrowStream%E2%80%99s-ITM-software-Increases-Logistics-Savings-minimum#.U9q6y2P-k9I
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130719005062/en/ArrowStream-Signs-RR-Donnelley-Software-License-Agreement#.U9q7QGP-k9I

[cosmicone]

24. I get your point but

even a once star employee can lose efficiency and performance. The world is full of once greats who either lost their original vigor and efficiency or were overtaken by a younger generation that was more attuned to the technology of today.

We see this in NFL -- once greats are cut and replaced by newer talent. We see this in the medical field where great older doctors are pushed aside by younger doctors who know the modern medical techniques.

My point is, without knowing the details of why he was demoted, we will never know if it was justified or not.

Then again, no one deserves to be shot in the head .. whatever the grievances. We have a due process for that.

[whathehell]

28. I'm betting you are employed and fairly far from 50..

[cosmicone]

29. I am on the other side of 50 from what you think

I just can't condone shooting someone in the head.

[whathehell]

38. No, I doubt any of us condones shooting people in the head, but your posts

shows little to no compassion for those who lose a long time job after 50.

[toddwv]

39. I'm not condoning it either.

It's kind of like understanding why fire burns. It doesn't mean I'm glad someone's house burned down, but what started the fire and what allowed that fire to burn?

[passiveporcupine]

25. There are other ways to deal with slow downs

Some companies ask their employees if they are willing to accept a shorter work week for a little while until things pick up again, rather than let employees go. Or they just choose that route.

If I had the option of taking a shorter week temporarily, and saving a co-worker's job, I would prefer that. Just think of the things you could do with a little extra time.

[Paladin]

31. Easy for you to say. (nt)

[GTurck]

46. How about.....

the 10 newest and youngest employees? It seems down-sizing always devolves onto people too old to find other well paying jobs and too young to retire.

[rocktivity]

45. You don't demote the chief technology officer of a technological company

Last edited Fri Aug 1, 2014, 10:58 AM - Edit history (1)

You either fire him, negotiate a severance package, or give him a leave of absence so he can go into rehab!


rocktivity

[IronGate]

9. Wow.

Nice victim blaming.

[KansDem]

12. How is this "victim blaming?"

He was demoted due to "downsizing." A 59-year-old will find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find suitable employment. Perhaps he saw this as the end of his life and his only option was suicide. And he could have held the CEO responsible, hence, the "death sentence."

[IronGate]

16. You're blaming the CEO for being shot,

that's blaming the victim.

[KansDem]

19. I don't know for certain but I would wager the demoted employee...

...considered himself "the victim."

After all, after decades of "trickle down," tax cuts for the wealthy, jobs exported to foreign countries, laws that favor the wealthy ("Citizens United&quot , and similar ruses to enrich the One Percenters, the average worker could feel victimized when the CEO comes to him and says, "You'll have to take a demotion for the good of The Company."

It's a tragedy, but One Percenters need to know that, due to their economic policies of the last 30-40 years, 59-year-olds have no options for such a scenario. They're not likely to take a hit for the Richie Riches.

Don't be surprised if they go down swinging...

[cosmicone]

23. The CEO may not have been a one percenter

and just a working stiff like many CEOs. The fortune 500 CEOs with their multimillion dollar packages get all the publicity but a lot of companies have CEOs that make a modest salary.

It may be that the company's board or major stockholders wanted the downsizing and the CEO was just doing his job.

In any event, no one deserves to be shot in the head whatever grievances an employee may have. We don't live in 18th century France .. there is a reason we don't have guillotines although some on DU may want them.

[hopemountain]

41. exactly, kansdem

this is the reality of how the employee experienced his demotion. and this is exactly the reality ceo's, cfo's, and management need to wake up to and challenge themselves to better ways of treating their employees. period.

[Loudly]

3. The shooter is dead. Has justice been done?

Or would justice have been better served by guns and ammunition being just too scarce for the shooter to obtain?

[LittleGirl]

5. uuuuuuuughhhhhhhhhhh eom

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Oh boy,just the start.

Employer's can be just plain stupid when it comes to dealing with their employee's. With all of the guns out there,the results are evident.

[cosmicone]

7. A minor side effect of "responsible" gun ownership

Now back to more important things like another episode or Real Housewives .....

[onehandle]

10. Guns are handy. nt

[8_Point]

13. What a coward...

[freebrew]

14. Guns are illegal in Chicago...

maybe the CEO needed a raise or larger bonus.
Maybe the employee was an ass.

We'll never really know.

[Loudly]

37. Not illegal anymore. Unfortunately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_v._Chicago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_v._Madigan

[Turbineguy]

18. Years ago I worked for the ocean shipping division

of an oil company. While I was on leave (paid) I asked for an extra (unpaid) two weeks because I was getting married. The answer came, "Don't let your marriage interfere with your job!"

I ended up getting a new job.

No job is that important.

[Dopers_Greed]

20. Now they will actually start doing something about gun control

A CEO got shot

[Paladin]

30. What makes you think that?

[NutmegYankee]

49. The wealthy May come to the realization that the millions of people they shit on daily...

With low wages, poor personnel policies, and random layoffs are armed to the teeth and have stopped blaming each other.

[Paladin]

50. One incident doesn't mean anything.

If it becomes a trend, we'll see. Nothing would please me more than to see this country finally wake up and put some meaningful hurt on the out-of-control gun culture.

[whistler162]

21. More accurate title

Demoted CTO shoots CEO then kills himself.

"DeFrances had been chief technology officer for the company, which provides supply-chain management to the food-service industry. Police said he was despondent after being told Friday that he was being demoted as part of staff reductions."

[BeyondGeography]

26. Their website still has him listed as the #2 exec in the company

http://www.arrowstream.com/public/about-leadership.shtml

Wounded pride could be as much/more a motive than money.

[pleinair]

32. the number two executive, according to your link

with the company since its inception. Master's degrees in Psychology and Computer Science. I'm forcing myself not to speculate on what is none of my business.

[BeyondGeography]

33. Longtime friends with the victim

http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/544/article/p2p-80955287/

[shenmue]

27. I know what it's like to lose your job

It has happened to me more than once. It's a nightmare of depression, confusion, feelings of worthlessness...

I just can't fathom taking someone else's life, because that would make it even worse.

[Demobrat]

35. He didn't lose his job. He was demoted.

Better to demote 50 people than fire ten. It seems in this case the company was actually trying to save money without having to let anyone go.

[shenmue]

36. I stand corrected

[freshwest]

42. True.

[TIMETOCHANGE]

34. Job security is a fallacy. Murder is wrong.

The only time you have job security is when you are self-employed and you own the business and even then that only occurs when the business is successful. He got demoted, it sucked, he should have sucked it up like an adult and accepted it or explored other avenue for professional achievement. My dad left his job at 48, plied all his skills and contacts and started his own business that he later sold at 56 for over a million dollars, invested his money in a corporate trust and sold all his properties leading up to 2007, and is back in the consulting game as well as the house investing game.

Your job is your job, it's where you go to trade your value as an asset for payment for your services. When your services lose their value, you will proceedingly be paid less. If you don't like it then start a business where folks get to keep their jobs no matter what and see how well that goes.

Liberals need to organize and become job creators. We need to change how corporate and consumer culture functions. Otherwise we might as well be pissing into the wind.

[whathehell]

40. Of course murder is wrong, but the rest of your post sounds like free market,

right-wing ideology...Are you sure you don't have a republic to free somewhere?

[LanternWaste]

47. My opinion...

My opinion... it won't be posting too much longer.

[whathehell]

48. Your " opinion won't be posting too much longer"???

I'm sorry, I have no idea what that means.

[TIMETOCHANGE]

51. I'm a realist, and breaking the law won't help our side.

If you read my entire post I said we need to change things. Lawfully. Which we can do in a "free market" by imposing our own bylaws and liberal and progressive ideals in businesses we start. Getting mad at your neighbors dog won't do you any good, all you can do is rear and raise your dog right.

We need to organize and back companies without profit being a sole pursuit. If we got our act together we could form investment funds and cooperatives where we started companies that manifested our goals and ideals. Have we done that, have rich "liberals" and "progressives" done that? No. And then we wonder why things won't change. Because we're not angry enough yet. But we can't just be angry. We have to be smart, coordinated, cooperative, and loyal.

The "free market" doesn't have to be our enemy. It can be that which aids us if we use it right and are smart about it. Waiting on a corrupt and bought-and-paid for government, to come to our aid and change things is bad idea. Are we waiting on a hero to save us? Haven't we waited before and been disappointed?

[whathehell]

52. You can be a "realist" and still favor Fair Trade over supposed Free Trade,

which doesn't work for anyone except those at the very top.

You do know that "Free Trade" is not synonymous with capitalism and

actually only started in earnest about 30 years ago don't you?

Prior to that, we operated with Tariffs (since the late 18th Century) and trade

barriers.....Since "Globalism" and "Free Trade" started, America's middle

class has steadily deteriorated to the point where we now have the

SMALLEST middle class in the developed world, along with the smallest

safety net. Prior to Reagan, under whom all these economic policies

truly began, America had the LARGEST Middle Class in the world, along

with the highest number of college graduates.

Good luck organizing and backing BUSINESSES without a large profit

motive, because the Right Wing now insists that even GOVERNMENT

make profits -- That's why they constantly attack the public school system

and favor "privatizing" the U.S. Post office, prisons, and virtually everything

else.

[TIMETOCHANGE]

54. Fair Trade would be great?

When are we going to get that?

"Good luck organizing and backing BUSINESSES without a large profit movtive...." that's the frigging problem right there. That attitude. We have to change that attitude. It's the rights biggest asset, the fact the left has that attitude. Having already given up.

We need to organize. We need to organize for liberal and progressive ideals. Waiting on right winged owned businesses to grant us our ideals is a fools errand.

We have assets, we have money, we can choose how we spend it. We organize on how we spend it. If one million liberals and progressives took a hundred dollars and put it together in a Trust Fund designed to create liberal and progressive organized businesses. Things could start to change. That's 25 less visits to Starbucks a year, a few weekends spent working in the yard and around the house than going out.

Set the trust fund up as a corporate trust and use the stock market to help fund it with investing. Use the enemies' own machines against them to create businesses that pay wages twice the minimum wage as their lowest wage. Lets workers opt to buy in as shareholders and minor partners with a small part of their paycheck so they are motivated to create a successful business they own a piece of. Let their sweat and blood create equity in their jobs.

Work on reducing carbon footprints with businesses presence. Optimize recycling of waste, focus on employing our society's most vulnerable where possible, provide health insurance options for all employees that doesn't eat up more than five percent of their paycheck.

We can change the culture of profit and business. We just have to organize.

[rocktivity]

43. Hate to think of what he would have done if he'd been fired

But he was the #2 man in the company -- an officer, not a "worker." If he didn't know the company was in trouble, he should have, which would have at least put in him a position to negotiate a more favorable outcome.

For instance, did he own stock in the company? Did he have his own money invested? Was there a merger or takeover in the offing? There has to be more to this than just a demotion.


rocktivity

[rocktivity]

44. Irony alert

It was fifty weeks ago today...

ArrowStream Named One of Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For By the National Association for Business Resources

Chicago, IL-July 15, 2013 - ArrowStream, Inc. ("ArrowStream"), a leading provider of supply chain management technology, has been recognized as a Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies To Work For award recipient by the National Association For Business Resources (NABR), an advocate and representative of small and medium-sized businesses in the area of human resources...

Companies named to the 2013 Chicago's 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For list practice innovative strategies and represent best practices in human resources in categories such as compensation and benefits, engagement and retention, education and development, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance and community initiatives...

rocktivity

[daleo]

53. This is why everyone in the executive suite needs to be armed

Well, that would be the standard NRA argument, anyway.