Gunman in Alabama Massacre Had Hit List

The gunman who went on a bloody rampage in rural Alabama that left 11 dead was keeping a list of those "who done him wrong," police said Wednesday.

Michael McLendon, 28, who killed 10 people before taking his own life, had a target list that detectives found in his house in Kinston, Ala., according to Coffee County District Attorney Gary McAliley.

Most of those mentioned were corporations, not people.

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Click here to see a map showing where the massacre occurred.

McAliley said that Kelley's Foods in Elba and Reliable Metals in Samson were on the list. McLendon had previously worked at both.

Kelley's Foods said Wednesday that he quit his job there last Wednesday. He was forced to resign from the metals plant in 2003, according to local officials.

Also included was a Pilgrim's Pride plant near Enterprise where his mother worked. She was among the victims of her son's shooting spree, and the district attorney said she had recently been laid off from the plant.

Detectives continued to try to piece together what caused McLendon to snap Tuesday night, going on a cross-county rampage and killing 10 people before committing suicide. It was the worst mass shooting in the state's history.

Investigators declined to comment on a motive for the shootings, which only lasted about an hour but claimed the lives of McLendon's grandmother, uncle, mother, and cousin.

Samson Mayor Clay King said he had known McLendon all his life and could not say what sparked the massacre.

"If you would have asked me two days ago if he was capable of this, I would have said certainly not," King said on NBC's "Today" show early Wednesday.

McLendon, who lived with his mother, had once trained as a police officer in 2003, but didn't complete the requirements to join the force, according to Alabama Bureau of Investigation Chief Jerry Connor.

The bloodshed — which spread across two counties near the Florida border and claimed 10 victims plus the gunman — began about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when McLendon burned down the house he lived in with his mother.

Authorities found the charred remains of Lisa McLendon, 52, inside the home.

Coffee County Sheriff Dave Sutton said McClendon put his mother on an L-shaped couch, piled things on top of her and set her on fire. He said McClendon also shot four dogs at the house.

McLendon then drove a dozen miles southeast to Samson, in Geneva County, where he gunned down six more victims, including four members of his family.

They were identified as McLendon's uncle, James Alford White, 55; his cousin, Tracy Michelle Wise, 34; a second cousin, Dean James Wise, 15; and his grandmother, Virginia E. White, 74.

Also killed on the porch were the wife and daughter of local sheriff's deputy Joshua Myers, Andrea Myers, 31, and Corinne Myers, 18 months.

He then drove around the town shooting out his car window, killing three more people seemingly at random, authorities said. Those victims were identified as James Irvin Starling, 24; Sonja Smith, 43; and Bruce Wilson Malloy, 51.

The rampage ended another 12 miles farther east in Geneva at the metals plant where the shooter worked until 2003. After a gun battle with police, McLendon killed himself.

"He cleaned his family out," Coffee County Coroner Robert Preachers said. "We don't know what triggered it."

Shocked, grieving residents hoped the answers weren't lost when the gunman committed suicide.

"Apparently something just snapped," said Wynnton Melton, mayor of Geneva, Ala., where McLendon ended his spree.

Once investigators got a look at the ammunition he was carrying, they feared the bloodshed could have been worse. "I'm convinced he went over there to kill more people. He was heavily armed," Sutton said.

The sausage manufacturer and distributor located about 25 miles away from where the shootings happened said McLendon had been working there since 2007, but quit last Wednesday.

Kelley Foods said in a statement Wednesday that McLendon voluntarily left his position there a week ago. The company didn't specify what McLendon's job was at the plant in Elba, but said he was a "reliable team leader" who was well liked.

Myers, the Geneva County sheriff's deputy who lost his wife and a toddler daughter when they were shot on the porch in Samson, told reporters Wednesday that he was trying to come to terms with the tragedy.

"I don't understand why anything like this could happen," he said. "I cried so much yesterday, I don't have a tear left in me. I'm never going to be able to fully understand it."

His 4-month-old daughter Ella survived the porch shootings and was undergoing surgery at a Florida hospital to remove shrapnel or a bullet from her leg, Myers said. He has been told that she is stable.

"Keep my baby girl in your prayers," he pleaded. "I don't know what else to say."

Geneva County Sheriff Greg Ward said investigators have put a timeline together and are following up on tips that have come in.

"Right now, we're trying to run down all the leads," Ward told FOXNews.com. "We're filling in the blanks between Kinston and here. It's a puzzle. We're trying to put all the pieces together and figure out what set this kid off."

Geneva Police Chief Frank Lindsey was wounded by McLendon, who trapped him and his partner in their police car as he fired round after round from his automatic weapon.

Lindsey told FOX News that they encountered McLendon at a Wal-Mart in Geneva.

"He had a lot more fire power than we did," Lindsey said Wednesday. "All we had were our pistols. He fired 15, 16 rounds from an automatic weapon. ... We faced him head-on. He just looked at us right straight."

Lindsey said McLendon disabled their vehicle but then stopped shooting at them, walked away and turned the gun on himself.

"He sprayed bullets through the town," said Kirke Adams, district attorney for Geneva and Dale counties.

One woman was struck down as she walked out of a gas station. Another man was driving. Another man was shot as he tried to run away.

"In a cowardly act, he shot him in the back," Adams said.

McLendon fired several shots at the Wal-Mart store in Geneva. No one was killed, but it was unclear if anyone was injured.

"There's a lot of people who had close calls," Adams said.

Samson contractor Greg McCullough said he was pumping fuel at the gas station when the gunman roared into the parking lot and slammed on his brakes.

"I first thought it was somebody playing," McCullough said. Then he saw the rifle.

McLendon opened fire, killing the woman who walked outside and wounding McCullough with bullet fragments that struck his truck and the pump. At one point the rifle appeared to jam, then McLendon fired more shots before driving off.

"I'm just in awe that something like this could take place. That someone could do such a thing. It's just shocking," McCullough said.

Police pursued McLendon to Geneva's Reliable Metal Products, where he got out of his car and fired at police with his automatic weapon, injuring Lindsey. He then walked inside and killed himself.

"He had plenty of ammo in his car and other weapons and he appeared to be going to do some damage there," Adams said.

Alabama Public Safety spokesman Kevin Cook said that McLendon resigned from his job at the plant in 2003. A person who answered the phone at the plant said no one could talk about the shooting.

King, the Samson mayor, said he knew the gunman and the victims.

"What I'm focusing on is people here in the town, making sure they feel comfortable," said King, who added the town of about 2,000 people had opened a crisis center at a local church. "I've lived here 44 years and never, never dreamed of this happening."

State Rep. Warren Beck, a Republican whose office is near the Wal-Mart, said his secretary heard gunfire everywhere.

"This is one of the most tragic events ever in Geneva County," he said.

Among others injured was a state trooper injured by broken glass after McLendon shot his cruiser seven times. The injured infant was taken to Wiregrass Medical Center in Geneva before being flown to another hospital, Wiregrass administrator John Rainey said.

The hospital's staff was ready to treat more injured victims, but their hopes were dashed as death reports trickled in.

Tommy Boyles, a 76-year-old security guard who works at the same plant where McLendon killed himself, said he and his wife were on the street nearby.

"We could have been caught up in it just as well as anyone else," he said. "That's what scares you: to be an innocent bystander and some nut walks up with a gun."

Myers, the grieving sheriff's deputy, made an appeal Wednesday to tighten the country's laws on the ownership of automatic weapons.

"As a community, as a family, as a nation, we need to do something about this," he said.

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FOXNews.com's Catherine Donaldson-Evans and The Associated Press contributed to this report.