Mayor Art Ward told me just now that his brother-in-law, who was a truck driver at Hartford Distributors, escaped with his life Tuesday.
When his co-worker Omar Thornton started shooting as Thornton was reportedly being escorted from the building early Tuesday, the mayor's brother-in-law was only about a telephone pole's length away, Ward said.
"He escaped yesterday by jumping out a window," said Ward, with four others. "He saw him coming and he got out of there."
Ward, who used to be a salesman for Alan S. Goodman -- a competitor of Hartford Distributors -- said he knew four of the men who died in the shooting.
He'd met them on the road, Ward said, while they were all working, and sometimes, they socialized together. A couple of them attended a stag party for Ward's son, he said, adding that the friendships "go back a long time."
Ward estimated that only about four or five people from Bristol work at the Manchester company.
The mayor said he hasn't had much of a chance to talk with his brother-in-law since the horror.
"We're just grateful that my brother-in-law is fine."
Unless I speak with the brother-in-law, I'm not using his name.
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ReplyDeleteBristol Mayor Art Ward knew Fazio and considered him "an outstanding individual.'' The mayor, who is related to Pletscher through his wife's family, had spent time with Fazio at family picnics and other functions.
"He was an outgoing, friendly person,'' Ward said.