An employee at an Alabama fire hydrant factory killed two coworkers and wounded two others before taking his own life early Tuesday, authorities said.

Albertville Police Chief Jamie Smith identified the gunman as Andreas Deon Horton, a 34-year-old Alabama man who worked at the Mueller Co. plant for the past 10 years, WIAT reported.

Horton opened on coworkers at about 2:30 a.m., killing Michael Lee Dobbins and David Horton, who was not related to the gunman, Smith told reporters at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

“Tragedy has struck in our community,” the police chief said, adding that residents in the small Alabama town were not accustomed to such violence.

Horton also shot and wounded two other coworkers, Casey Sampson and Isaac Byrd, authorities said. The men, who both live in Albertville, remained hospitalized Tuesday afternoon in Tennessee.

Following the gunfire, Horton, of DeKalb County, fled the plant in a maroon Jeep Cherokee and was later discovered dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the vehicle some 10 miles away in Guntersville, Smith said.

Multiple weapons were found inside Horton’s vehicle, all of which were handguns, AL.com reported.

Smith said he could not recall the last time the city of roughly 21,000 had a multiple-victim homicide. 

All of the department’s 28 detectives were working the case, along with help from 15 other law enforcement agencies, the chief said.

Investigators were still working to determine a motive in the attack.

“Hopefully we’ll learn something more about that in coming days as the investigation unfolds,” Smith told reporters.

The plant is expected to be closed for several days as investigators collect evidence, the police chief said.

Worried family members had already started to congregate outside the plant from the early hours, hoping to find out information about their loved ones.

Dobbins’ grandmother, Ann Walters, said he started at the plant 10 months ago. He’s survived by a 2-year-old daughter, she said.

“He was fixing to buy a home, and he wanted to buy a car for his girlfriend,” Walters told AL.com from the scene, just after she learned about her grandson’s death. “He was a perfect gentleman, everybody will tell you. He was good to everybody and put his family first.”

Allen Horton Jr., whose uncle was killed in the early morning shooting, said he was still “in shock.”

“I’m still in shock,” Horton told AL.com. “It could have happened anywhere. But we just got word the shooter shot himself. I hate that it went down like that. But I hate it for my family.”

Mueller is a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Mueller Water Products, which manufactures water distribution and measurement services in North America, according to its website. The company has 11 plants in the US and Canada, WHNT reported.

Mueller Water Products issued a statement saying it was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the violence.

“Our hearts are with the victims and their loved ones, the Albertville community and the entire Mueller family during this extremely difficult time,” company officials told WHNT. “Our entire focus is on the health and wellbeing of our colleagues, and we are committed to providing any and all support to them and their families.”

More than 400 people work at the Albertville plant, giving the city its nickname of “Fire Hydrant Capital of the World.” Roughly 100 employees were inside when the gunfire erupted, WHNT reported.