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Louisiana Violence in the Workplace

October 8th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

Police in Alexandria, Louisiana shot and killed a man early on October 5 after a long standoff at which he shot 5 people in a downtown law office. Two of the injured died, according to the police.

According to Alexandria mayor Jacques Roy, police used explosives to enter the building before the shooter, John Ashley, was killed in an exchange of gunfire. Ashley was a 63-year-old retired city maintenance worker.

The stand-off lasted about 10 hours with Ashley fighting off attempts by officers to rescue workers inside the law office. Ashley also fired on a police robot sent into the building. Two injured workers managed to escape, while a third was rescued by the police.

One of the dead was Marty Fields, a postal worker who was delivering mail to the office. Fields walked in on the shooting in progress, and was killed. The other worker who was fatally injured was Joey Giordano, the son of attorney Camille Giordano. Camille Giordano was one of the injured pulled from the building.

According to news reports, the other injured workers were attorney Sam Giordano and legal secretary Andrea Fletcher Price.

Since Labor Day, there have been a number of tragic workplace shootings including one in Orlando, Florida and one at the University of Delaware.

Despite a number of very high-profile cases of violence in the workplace in recent weeks, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and OSHA insist that workplace violence is on the wane.

According to an annual report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics or BLS, homicides in the workplace are on the downswing. In 2006, OSHA reported the lowest number of workplace homicides since the BLS began keeping records. The rate was a decline of more than 50% from the highest reported workplace homicide rate, in 1994.

Like all the BLS workplace fatality records, these have been adjusted to eliminate deaths associated with the 2001 terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C. and New York. Had those fatalities at work been included, 2001 would have had far more workplace homicides than any other year.

Between 2001 and 2005, there were an average of 602 homicides per year at work. In 2005, that number was 567. In 2006, figures show a 9% decrease in the homicide rate at work, with 516 homicides. These include 199 people who died of self-inflicted wounds, often during the commission of another crime at work.

Of the 2006 homicides, 81%, or 417, were shootings. The rate of stabbings in the workplace declined 37%, from 60 in 2005 to 38 in 2006. Overall, workplace stabbings account for just 1% of workplace fatalities.

More people are killed each year by falls, or injuries from equipment than by violence in the workplace. In 2006, the number of workers killed in falls was 809, up from the 2005 number of 770, an increase of about 5%. Across the board, every type of fall resulted in more fatalities in 2006 than in 2005.

Injuries by equipment are decreasing by a modest 2%. In 2006, 983 people were killed in such accidents, compared to 1,005 in 2005. These accidents include being struck by a falling or flying object, sustaining fatal injuries after being caught in equipment, being compressed in equipment or collapsing materials, and being caught in equipment that is running.

The #1 killer of American workers is still the motor vehicle. Transportation accidents accounted for 42% of workplace fatalities in 2006, killing 2,413 people. This was 80 fewer deaths than the prior year. Workplace vehicle accidents include collisions, striking a stationary object in or beside the road and being struck by a vehicle. These numbers also include deaths to workers who are struck by a motor vehicle, and deaths due to trains, boats and aircraft.