New Albany police Chief Gregg Jones said investigators think they are getting closer to understanding a motive for the mass shooting at a workplace Tuesday night in which one person was killed and five others were injured at the KDC/ONE manufacturing and warehouse facility.

“We don’t have a clear motive. We’re learning more about him and some of his thoughts,” Jones said. “Evacuating people didn’t know anything about him. No idea, no fight…. I think we’re almost there but we don’t have one yet.”

Jones said investigators have talked with company managers and supervisors as part of their effort to determine a motive. He addressed motive and other details in a press conference held Wednesday afternoon at New Albany City Hall.

Police responded within four minutes to the 10:22 p.m. call of a shooting at the KDC/ONE facility located on the 8800 block of Smith’s Mill Road off Beech Road SW and just north of Route 161 in the far western Licking County portion of the city.

The first New Albany police officer entered the building and city police were quickly joined by the Franklin County and Licking County sheriff’s offices. Law enforcement was able to send three teams inside to clear the building.

A drone and K9s were used in the effort, Jones said. He said there was a lot of machinery inside and it was “very loud” and “there were a lot of nooks and crannies.” It took “hours to clear the building,” he said.

Meanwhile, the suspected gunman, 28-year-old Bruce Reginald Foster III, had left the facility aboard a ride share he regularly took to work there and back to his apartment in the Peer on 7th apartments in Columbus’ Short North where he was apprehended later Wednesday morning. Police do not believe the ride share driver had anything to do with the incident.

“We had just missed him,” Jones said of Foster.

The teams clearing the building had to enter some areas with security fobs, Jones said. Once inside they found five people wounded and one fatally shot. Police did not release any further information about the victims at the request of their families, he said.

Police recovered a handgun from the scene. About 150 people were working on that shift, and they were evacuated across the street to another building. Police obtained information to help develop the suspect and asked about a motive, but Tuesday night nobody reported any conflict, he said.

Police records do not indicate they had been called out to that building for any reason previously.

KDC/ONE has a good network of cameras that were helpful in helping police determine whether the gunman was still in the building or whether he left.

“He chose to commit this act of violence at work, not on the share ride driver or a neighbor,” Jones said. He targeted people he worked with, the chief said.

Through the talent of the collective law enforcement agencies that assisted, each bringing different talents, a fast picture was developed of where the gunman might be and teams of law enforcement were dispatched to each, Jones said.

The U.S. Marshal’s Service task force had 12-16 officers and helicopters overhead when they went to arrest Foster at the Columbus apartment building. He did not come out and police had to force entry. Foster “resisted commands” about showing his hands and laying down, and a Taser was deployed to take him into custody.

Foster was then transported to the New Albany police department for questioning and later taken to the Licking County Sheriff’s Office for incarceration at the county jail. He will be arraigned Thursday.

“I wouldn’t call him fully cooperative,” Jones said of the suspect.

Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin praised Jones for his management of the situation, saying his “instant communication made all the difference” and “resulted in a quick apprehension.”

“I truly believe more lives were spared,” by Foster’s quick arrest, Baldwin said. “If we had not apprehended this guy as quickly as we did, who knows what else could have happened.”

Police identify Glock handgun used

Daryl McCormick, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) said Foster legally purchased the gun in September 2024, according to firearm records obtained through the agency’s national tracing center in West Virginia. ATF then contacts the manufacturer and wholesaler to get to the retailer, who must maintain a 4473 transaction record under federal law.

The gun was a Glock Model 26 compact 9mm pistol that normally holds nine rounds but could accept a magazine of up to 31 rounds, McCormick said. He did not know how many rounds the gunman had in the weapon at the time of the shooting.

The death was the first homicide ever in New Albany, according to police records.

Jones said his department has had felonious assaults, a shooting and a stabbing but nothing involved a death or homicide.

“This is obviously rare for us,” he said. “…You certainly hope this never happens but its something all police departments across the US need to prepare for.”

New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding said the tragedy tests the strength of the community, but is confident it is something the city can overcome.

More:KDC/ONE shooting is the first homicide in New Albany history

Related:Who is Bruce Reginald Foster III, the KDC/ONE shooting suspect?