A man who killed three people and injured 14 more in a shooting spree in Kansas had been served with a restraining order shortly before he started his attack, police said Friday.
Cedric Larry Ford, 38, had been barred from contacting someone he had abused. The Washington Post reports that Ford received the restraining order about 90 minutes before he began shooting people, first on a highway in Newton, Kansas and then at the lawnmower factory in the nearby town of Hesston, where he had worked. The attack lasted 26 minutes before a police officer shot and killed him.
The Post reports that Ford had a long criminal history, with convictions in both Florida and Kansas, making it unclear how he obtained the pistol and assault rifle he used in the attack. One of his recent criminal charges was for an assault on a live-in girlfriend, but Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton said he couldn’t specify who the restraining order was meant to protect.
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An image of Ford from his Facebook page. Screenshot via NBC