Man in custody after Foster Farms shooting

A part-time temporary worker for the Foster Farms food processing plant in Corvallis, Oregon, fired a handgun in the ladies’ restroom after fleeing the scene of a car accident. No one was injured but the Foster Farms plant closed for the remainder of the day.

(vmargineanu,BigStock.com)
(vmargineanu,BigStock.com)

A part-time temporary worker for the Foster Farms food processing plant in Corvallis, Oregon, fired a handgun in the ladies’ restroom after fleeing the scene of a car accident on Thursday, July 18 around 8:10 a.m. No one was injured, but the Foster Farms plant closed for the remainder of the day.

Corvallis Police Captain Nick Hurley told news outlet Oregon Live that authorities are still uncertain why Adrian F. Nickerson, 22, of Albany, Oregon, fled the scene of the accident. The car accident was described as minor, but Nickerson had already fled before police arrived.

“There’s nothing that leads us to believe that he had a grievance toward anyone at Foster Farms,” Hurley said in the Oregon Live report. Employees began fleeing the plant before police ordered evacuations.

Nickerson came out of the building and surrendered after police arrived. Police said they had the situation under control by 9:15. The investigation is still ongoing.

Local business and the Linn-Benton Community College’s Benton Center went into lockdown mode in response to the shot fired.

Nickerson has been charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, first-degree criminal mischief, and failure to perform the duties of a driver.

Ira Brill, vice president of corporate communications for Foster Farms, told the Corvallis local publication the Gazette-Times that the company routinely prepares for emergencies like this.

“The safety of our employees is our highest priority, and Foster Farms will provide counseling and support services to its Corvallis employees. We are thankful this incident was concluded without harm to our employees or the greater community. We greatly appreciate local law enforcement’s professionalism in quickly resolving the situation," Brill said in an emailed statement to the Gazette-Times.

According to the WATTAgNet’s Top Poultry Companies database, Foster Farms is a family-owned vertically integrated turkey and chicken company based in Turlock, California. It was founded as a single turkey farm in 1939 and has since grown into a poultry company with operations in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana. It produces fresh, frozen and frozen ready-to-cook poultry products. It employs more than 11,000 people. Foster Farms produced 24.57 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis in 2018, an increase of 3.47 million pounds – or about 16.4% – from 2017. Its 2018 sales were $1.848 billion, an increase from $1.746 billion in 2017.

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