In the summer of 2006, a violent outburst shattered the routine of a Denver, Colorado workplace, leaving a family devastated and a community in shock. On Sunday, June 25, 2006, 32-year-old Mauricio DeHaro, a married father of two young daughters, went to his job at the Safeway distribution center, unaware of the tragedy that would soon unfold. That afternoon, a coworker, 22-year-old Michael Julius Ford, began a shooting rampage inside the massive warehouse.
Without a clear motive, Ford,
who had been a produce worker at the facility for over a year, used a. 357-caliber revolver to randomly shoot at his colleagues. Amid the chaos, he also set several small fires within the building, adding to the terror of the approximately 152 employees who were on duty. DeHaro, who had worked at the Safeway warehouse for six years, was fatally wounded in the attack. In addition to DeHaro, four other Safeway employees and a Denver police officer were injured.
The first 911 calls from inside the warehouse came in around 3:00 p.m., prompting a large police response. SWAT teams entered the building to search for the shooter. The manhunt within the sprawling complex lasted for over an hour. At one point, Ford ambushed the officers, wounding one of them. Police returned fire, and Ford was shot and killed at the scene, ending the violent episode.
In the aftermath, investigators struggled to find a definitive reason for the rampage. Ford's sister suggested he had been picked on at work for his Muslim faith, but this claim was refuted by his father, Safeway officials, and one of the wounded victims. Ford's father offered that his son might have been upset about being passed over for a promotion, though the company denied this as well. An autopsy later revealed that Ford was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the attack. Ultimately, no clear motive was ever established for the senseless act of violence that took the life of Mauricio DeHaro and injured five others.
