Stephen Ellison

Wounded UPS Shooting Survivor Baffled Over Suspect's Motive

Employees and customers gather for vigil outside San Francisco warehouse where shooting occurred last week

A San Francisco UPS driver recovering from a gunshot wound says he does not understand why colleague Jimmy Lam shot him and killed three fellow workers last week in a warehouse workplace shooting.

A police official has said that Lam appears to have felt disrespected by co-workers but did not know if that motivated the shooting.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

Wounded driver Alvin Chen told The Associated Press in an interview Monday that disrespecting Lam would not have been in character for those killed.

Chen said Monday his friends Benson Louie and Wayne Chan were kind people and that the third man killed, Mike Lefiti, was helpful.

Chen says the shooting happened after worker warm-up stretches.

Meanwhile, UPS workers and customers gathered for a cross-faith prayer and vigil outside the warehouse Monday. Driver Leo Parker, who watched the shooting unfold in front of him, said the three who were killed were good friends. Parker told NBC Bay Area he’s not yet ready to go back to work.

ups vigil
NBC Bay Area
UPS driver Leo Parker on Monday talks with customers during a vigil at the warehouse where three of his fellow drivers were killed in a workplace shooting last week. (June 19, 2017)

"It’s a very shocking thing," he said. "Most of it happened right in front of me; most of the images you can’t just get out of your head."

Parker said he saw Lam walk in with a gun in his hand seconds before the shooting.

"We were in the meeting, and he just walked up and popped him right in the head," Parker said, adding that Lam was close enough to him to kill him. "He glanced at me, and I looked at him, and I saw the gun in his hand. And then he turned the other way.

"And then when I dove under the truck, all I heard was pop pop pop pop," Parker added.

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