Kenneth Tornes

Case record: Kenneth Tornes

Background

Kenneth Tornes was a firefighter in Jackson, Mississippi. He was described as an eight-year veteran of the Jackson Fire Department. He was identified as a 32-year-old firefighter and later as 33 and 36-year-old in different reports.

The offence

On April 24, 1996, Kenneth Tornes killed his estranged wife, Glenda, at their southwest Jackson home. Coroner Robert Martin said she suffered a gunshot wound to the forehead and had been dead for several hours when her body was discovered.

After killing his wife, Tornes went to the Jackson Fire Department central fire station. He attacked supervisors he could find at the central fire station, targeting people he could distinguish by clothing. Police and witnesses said he brushed past rank-and-file colleagues in blue shirts to hunt down supervisors in white.

At the central fire station, Tornes started his rampage on the second floor of the station in downtown Jackson. He searched for anyone wearing a white shirt. He confronted one woman worker in a hallway and told her, "Lady, get back, I am going to blow this place up." Jackson Deputy Fire Marshal J.L. Kelly said, "He picked his targets." One firefighter later said Tornes told him to take his arson dog and get out of the way. Tornes intentionally avoided and did not harm any firefighters who wore a blue shirt.

Killed at the fire station were Capt. Stan Adams, age 45; District Chief Dwight Craft, 48; Capt. Merideth Moree, age 49; and District Chief Rick Robbins, 47.

Wounded at the fire station were District Chief Jacob Bell, 48, who was reported to be in stable condition, and Capt. Ken Lewis, age 50, who was in critical condition.

As the attack unfolded, shots were heard over the fire department's radio network. Fire Department Investigator Norman Presson said, "Apparently whoever was on duty keyed up the mike when the gunman came in." Presson also said he heard someone pleading to Tornes not to shoot, and then heard shots fired over the radio: "Then I heard shots fired over the radio," Presson said.

After the fire station shooting, Tornes fled and led police on a 10-mile chase. Several accidents were caused by the fleeing gunman, including one that involved an ambulance.

The chase ended in the parking lot of the North Park Mall in suburban Ridgeland. A shootout with police ensued, and Tornes was shot once in the left eye. Ridgeland Police Officer Elmo Gabbert, age 34, was shot in the hip by Tornes and was said to be in stable condition. Another report said Tornes was hit in the left eye, and that he was in serious but stable condition after the bullet was surgically removed from his eye.

When police searched Tornes' car, they found a Mac-11, a Tec-9, and a .45-caliber handgun.

During the incident timeline, multiple counts of dead and wounded people were reported: five people dead and four others wounded; and later phrasing described five dead and four wounded, with authorities stating Tornes killed four on-duty firefighters and that he also wounded two others.

Investigation

Investigators had not determined a motive. Police Chief Robert Johnson said at a news conference that the shootings appeared to be planned in advance. Police said Tornes carefully planned his day of killing, from the point-blank shooting of his wife at their home to the slaughter of his superiors at Central Fire Station.

Jackson Fire Department arson investigator Dave Berry was inside the three-story downtown building that served as firehouse and headquarters. Berry heard distress calls on his radio from someone inside and ran to a second-floor conference room to find six colleagues bleeding. Only Capt. Ken Lewis, 50, appeared conscious. Berry told help was needed and said: "He said, 'Help me, I've been shot, I can't breathe well,' " Berry said. Berry also fired three shots at firefighter Kenneth Tornes's car.

Several comments from coworkers and union leadership described long-running disputes and Tornes's fixation on the chiefs and administration. Jackson Firefighter Tim Dukes said: "He was a perfect gentleman except when you got him talking about the chiefs. He's been talking about this for years." The president of the local firefighters union said that Tornes was "a time bomb waiting to go off." Another firefighter said: "I'm surprised it took so long." Other co-workers said Tornes was very upset about the long-running dispute between firefighters and superiors over reprimands for what were considered to be trivial matters. The local union president said: "They put the pressure on this man. He is a victim, too. When you brought up the administration, he would just blow up."

Arrest

Tornes was shot in the left eye during the police shootout at the North Park Mall parking lot in suburban Ridgeland. He was reported to be in serious but stable condition at an area hospital.

Trial

Kenneth Tornes was denied bond on four charges of capital murder in the shooting deaths of four superior officers and one count of murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife. He was also charged with two counts of aggravated assault for wounding two other ranking firefighters.

Tornes pled guilty to shooting-related charges to do with related wounding of two Ridgeland police officers. He pleaded guilty Friday to related charges of wounding two Ridgeland police officers. He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault in an April 24, 1996, confrontation with Ridgeland police at a mall while fleeing Jackson lawmen.

A former Jackson firefighter received sentencing for shooting at two police officers. He pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault Friday in Madison County Circuit Court and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. That sentencing occurred while he still faced the most serious charges for the fire station rampage and his wife's killing.

In the capital case, Tornes entered a plea of guilty to the killing of his estranged wife, Glenda Washington Tornes. He entered the plea shortly before jury selection was to resume for his murder trial in the killing of Glenda Washington Tornes at the couple's Jackson home. The case had been moved to Bay St. Louis from Jackson because of pretrial publicity. Jury selection had started Monday.

A jury sentenced Kenneth Tornes to death for killing two district fire chiefs in an April 1996 shooting rampage. After hearing four days of testimony about the day Tornes killed his wife and then opened fire on a meeting of his superiors, a circuit court jury deliberated less than three hours before reaching the decision.

Sentencing

Kenneth Tornes was sentenced to 45 years in prison for shooting at two police officers after he pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault.

He was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to the April 24, 1996, killing of his estranged wife during a shooting spree that also left four co-workers dead.

He was sentenced to death on April 3, 1998 after a jury trial.

Appeals

No appeals information was provided.

Outcome

Kenneth Tornes died in prison on April 9, 2000.

Aftermath

A state Department of Corrections spokesman said Kenneth Tornes, 36, formerly of Jackson, was found dead early Sunday in a room of the 56-bed hospital unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman by a medical staffer. Another report said a blood clot killed him. Prison system officials said he had been admitted to the hospital unit at the Parchman prison Saturday.

Other details

A question about the reported age appeared in different accounts, including references to Tornes as 32, 33, and 36.

Firefighter Kenneth Tornes was described as "a Jackson, Mississippi fire fighter and walking time-bomb" in one account.

Multiple newspaper references to the incident included the Phoenix Gazette and The Commercial Appeal and Sun Herald, and an EmergencyNet NEWS Service report identified the event as leaving five people dead and four others wounded.