Plant Owner Called Police Before Shooting

A sausage factory owner accused of killing three government meat inspectors called police 15 minutes before the attack, saying they were trespassing and he wanted them removed.

The call from Stuart Alexander came three minutes after the lead inspector also called police for help in defusing the potentially volatile situation. The agents had had come to cite him for operating without a permit.

San Leandro police didn’t immediately respond to either phone call Thursday, since neither caller suggested immediate danger, and the officers on duty were involved in more pressing matters, Lt. Marc DeCouloude said Friday.

The first officer arrived--on a bicycle--more than 18 minutes after the initial call, when someone called 911 to say that nearly 20 shots had been fired at the Santos Linguisa factory.

A SWAT team member later found federal meat inspectors Tom Quadros, 52, and Jeannie Hillery, 56, and state inspector Bill Shaline, 57, face-down on the factory floor. They had been shot multiple times.

Alexander, 39, allegedly shot the three inspectors while a fourth inspector waited outside for police. Police said Alexander chased and shot at the fourth inspector for more than two blocks.

Then Alexander returned to the factory and fired more bullets into the inspectors’ bodies before laying down his gun, locking the factory and surrendering to the bicycle officer, according to the FBI.

Alexander was charged Friday with two federal counts of murder, and was to be arraigned in state court Friday afternoon on charges of murder and attempted murder. He could face the death penalty.

There was no way of knowing at the time of the phone calls--at 3:19 p.m. and 3:21 p.m. Wednesday--that violence was imminent, DeCouloude said.