A 50-year-old Arizona man killed his coworker by beating him with a baseball bat in a cafeteria, police said.
Derrick Simmons, 50, was arrested on February 18 after murdering one of his coworkers and wounding another at the Intel chip factory in Chandler, Arizona.
Officers from the Chandler Police Department arrested Simmons at the scene and took him to a detention center where he faces first-degree murder and aggravated assault charges.
According to court documents, police were called to the Intel Ocotillo Campus at around 6:15 am on Saturday with reports of a person attacking people at the cafeteria with a hatchet and injuring occupants.
Responding officers found one of the victims dead in the building’s cafeteria with obvious signs of blunt-force trauma. They found another victim with non-life-threatening injuries and took him to the hospital.
That morning, after night shift workers left, Simmons reportedly approached a table where a worker was seated and struck him multiple times on the head using a baseball bat.
Court documents state that when another coworker went to the aid of his colleague and confronted Simmons, the suspect hit the worker with the bat at the back of his head.
The suspect was spotted in front of the building carrying two bags and was arrested.
In a statement, Linda Qian, Intel Arizona’s spokesperson, confirmed the incident. She said police were on site and working with the company’s security to investigate the matter.
Chandler police said the investigation was still in the preliminary stages, but they had determined there was no threat to the public. They released a statement about the murder on Facebook.
Authorities identified the dead victim as Dan Foster, 49, and the injured man as Jaron Williams, 27.
Police booked Simmons into the Maricopa County Jail where he is held on a $1 million cash bond.
Court documents show that it is not the first time Simmons has had a run-in with the law. The suspect is a convicted felon, with documents showing he was convicted of aggravated assault using a deadly weapon.
