An altercation Saturday morning involving co-workers in the cafeteria of an Intel semiconductor facility in Chandler, Arizona, left one person dead, another injured and a third jailed, police said.
Derrick Lemond Simmons, 50, was jailed on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault, Chandler police said in a statement.
Employees who witnessed the incident told police that Simmons struck the victim with a baseball bat multiple times after a shift change, according to a probable cause statement filed to support his arrest. Simmons also used an ax and knife, the document alleges.
When another coworker at the same cafeteria table confronted Simmons, he struck the person in the back of the head with the bat, the document alleges.
The victim, who died from what police said appeared to be blunt force trauma, has not been publicly identified. The second person attacked was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
A motive or information about what preceded the incident is still under investigation, they said. Simmons was arrested in 2001 on one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to the probable cause plea. Details about that case were not immediately available.
It was not clear if Simmons has retained legal counsel for the case. The Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After the alleged attack, officers found Simmons in front of the building where the incident occurred, according to court records. He was holding a black and blue bag containing the weapons, the document alleges.
He told arriving officers that he believed they were looking for him and they surrendered, according to the probable cause statement.
Officers were called to the Intel Ocotillo campus at 6:15 a.m. Saturday due to multiple 911 calls about a person with an axe and injured people, police said in the document.
The facility was developed on 700 acres in the 1990s as part of the company’s multi-million dollar investment in «high-volume semiconductor manufacturing capacity,» according to a page about the Arizona location.
The Chandler facility is approximately 25 miles south of Phoenix. Intel said it established its first presence in Arizona in 1979 and now has two campuses and 10,000 employees in the state.
«Following a tragic incident on the Ocotillo campus this morning, Chandler Police are on scene and are working closely with Intel Security as they conduct their investigation,» Linda Qian, a spokeswoman for Intel Arizona, said in a statement. .
Police have previously made it clear that they did not believe the incident involved gunshots.
There was no ongoing threat or danger to the public, Chandler Police Department spokesman Sgt. said. Emma Huenneke said earlier on Saturday.
erick mendoza contributed.