XEROX HAWAII REMEMBERS 10 YEARS AFTER TRAGEDY

[Anonymous]

http://www.kitv.com/news/21483289/detail.html
XEROX HAWAII REMEMBERS 10 YEARS AFTER
TRAGEDY
HONOLULU — Monday is the
10th anniversary of the shooting at Xerox’s Hawaii headquarters that
left seven workers dead.The company sent a memo to workers this week
asking them to take a moment to remember those in the Xerox family whose
lives were lost a decade ago.The deadly workplace shooting happened
early in the morning of Nov. 2, 1999. A 911 call about a shooting sent
of shockwaves across the state.Xerox General Manger Glenn Sexton
remembered he was in a sales meeting when he got the call.”Nothing,
nothing could have prepared me for this type of situation,” he said.As
the events of the day unfolded, one of Sexton’s technicians, Byron
Uyesugi, was arrested for the murder of seven co-workers.

# Xerox
Shooting Victims: Jason Balatico
# Ford Kanehira
# Ron Kataoka
#
Ron Kawamae
# Melvin Lee
# Peter Mark
# John Sakamoto

In
the weeks to come, there were funerals and company-wide grief
counseling while the police investigation moved forward.”Time heals, at
the same time we will always remember and we what we want to do is focus
on these men’s’ lives that were very positive and special, and we don’t
want to forget that. As we look back on it, it was certainly a tragedy.
Certainly no one can forget, and it changed very many lives, not at the
least their families lives, but it had a profound effect, and does to
this day,” Sexton said.Uyesugi tried to plea not guilty by reason of
insanity. He had a fascination with fish and guns and was in therapy for
anger management.

A jury found him sane and convicted him of
seven counts of murder and one attempted murder charge.A civil suit
filed by the families against Xerox, Kaiser Permanente and Castle
Medical Center was settled out of court.Xerox had policies about
workplace violence, Uyesugi had threatened his coworkers and Sexton said
all those policies were followed.”And yet something like this still
occurred and that’s the unfortunate matter that tragedy does occur,” he
said.

One thing that stood out in Sexton’s mind is a company
meeting shortly following the shootings.”One of our employees stood up
and said, ‘The best thing to do to honor our colleagues is to be there
for our customers. The seven people we lost, they were loved by their
customers,’ and for that person to say that, it became a mantra that we
think about to this day,” he said.Uyesugi is serving a life sentence
without parole as well several concurrent life sentences totaling 235
years at a prison in Arizona. While the Saguaro Correctional Center
medium security facility offers educational and vocational programs,
prison officials said the former Hawaii resident has chosen not to
participate.

[Author]

November 3, 2009 at 10:58 AM