Work today has been unlike any other day in the 5 years I have been working here at Dearborn Stamping Plant. It started like any other day. I walked in at 5:58 (shift starts at 6😎), got on my HiLo, and started loading F150 rear door racks into trucks to be taken to the assembly plant.

Now this morning, I did not have any coffee so I was really looking forward to lunch. At around 9:30, my team leader came to me saying that I couldn’t leave the building for lunch today because there was “something going on with the police” in the parking lot. Strange, I thought, but I just kept working. About 5 minutes later, a coworker came up to me saying that there was an active shooter at AK steel, which is on the same property. I didn’t know what to think. This particular guy is a little goofy. But then, all of the bosses came to my dock and told me to stop working and get all my truck drivers inside the building and stay there. There was some urgency in their voices so I didn’t ask any questions.

About 10 minutes pass and my mind is racing. Do I have all of my things? What is really going on? Should I start stretching in case I have to high tail it out of there? Suddenly, a ear piercing siren that I’ve never heard before starts blaring. “WEEOOO WEEOOO SEVERE WEATHER ALERT. REPORT TO SAFE ZONE” I look around at the 10 or so other people I was standing around and nobody knew what was going on. Then, I get a call from my clerk saying to round up my drivers and head to the engine plant ramp, located roughly in the center of the plant.

As the entire shift was walking through the engine plant to the ramp area, I couldn’t help but think we were just a bunch of sitting ducks. So i stayed out of the crowd of about 150 people, and just stayed off to the side, in between some old engine racks just in case everything got froggy. As you would expect, rumors are flying. Im under the impression that this is a full on shooting.

I open Facebook to see if anyone is posting about this and see an article from Fox 2. Turns out, an armed robber is on the run and wound up on the rouge property and was last seen over at AK steel. There is even an alleged photo of the suspect from an AK worker that was posted on our union Facebook page.

So as of now, no new information to report. Its now 1pm and we are still on lockdown. Are we going home at 4? I hope so. This robber chose a great place to hide. This property has 5 plants on it if I’m not mistaken and there is a ton of unused space within the plants that have old, dusty assembly lines still set up. Tons of hiding room. Im really getting curious here as to what is going to happen. Hopefully Dearborn’s finest can get this guy and make sure we get out in time!