PINE BLUFF — A handful of shaken Central Moloney employees formed an office prayer circle Monday afternoon after an employee at the plant was shot and killed on the property.
Pine Bluff police arrested a Central Moloney employee, Lillie Foots-Wilson, 49, on Monday. She faces a first degree murder charge in the death of co-worker Latange Long, 34.
Foots-Wilson and Long, two longtime employees at the company’s components plant on Jefferson Parkway, had been arguing Monday morning before Foots-Wilson shot Long, police Lt. JoAnn Bates said.
The nature of the argument and how Foots-Wilson obtained the gun were unclear Monday afternoon.
Chris Hart, vice president of personnel and community relations at Central Moloney, said Foots-Wilson had apparently said she was sick, left work a little after 9 a.m. and returned with a gun.
Police received a phone call reporting a shooting at the plant at 10:25 a.m., Bates said.
A few shots were fired, but only Long was hit, she said.
Long was pronounced dead at the scene a little after 10:30 a.m., according to a Pine Bluff police report.
Both women had operated machines near each other on the manufacturing floor for nearly 10 years.
Workers at the electrical-industry plant were sent home for the day with pay and were told not to speak with reporters. Plant officials had not decided Monday afternoon when workers would return.
“It’s going to be quite some time before we can think about building components again,” Hart said.
Hart described the mood of the plant as “complete shock.”
Employees, some of whom were witnesses to the shooting, were praying and talking with each other into the afternoon.
“When you come to work in the morning, you don’t expect something like this,” Hart said.
Hart graduated from Watson Chapel High School with Long in 1996. He later hired her to work at Central Moloney.
When officers arrived, Foots-Wilson was “secured in a room” and did not have a gun, according to the police report. An officer found a manager holding the weapon, the report said.
Police arrested Foots-Wilson at the scene. She was being held Monday at the Jefferson County jail.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/24/2012