MORAINE — A trial has begun for a man accused of opening fire at the Moraine DMAX plant in 2023.
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“I’mma kill him, I’mma kill you and then I’ll kill myself.”
Rick Murray, assistant Montgomery County Prosecutor, told the jury that those were the words Frederick Cox said to his ex-girlfriend right before he opened fire inside the DMAX Moraine pant in May 2023.
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“A dozen shots rang through the rafters of that plant. The next moments were filled with utter chaos,” Murray said.
Prosecutors played a video of 300 employees working the second shift streaming out of the plant trying to get away from the gunfire.
The same video showed one employee coming out later, identified as Cox.
Prosecutors allege Cox killed 28-year-old Jeffrey James Allen III and wounded another worker.
Cox then turned the gun on himself outside.
“What is at issue is what this young man, Mr. Cox, was thinking when he fired the fatal shots and killed Mr. Allen,” Clyde Bennett II, Cox’s lawyer said.
Bennett claimed that Allen got tired of Vox trying to win the woman back and went over to speak to him in a threatening manner.
He alleges Cox acted in self-defense and blamed Allen for what happened.
“He believed Mr. Allen was going to cause him serious physical harm, this was not a purposeful event, this shooting would not have happened but for the actions of Mr. Allen,” Bennett said.
The first two witnesses to stand trial were a deputy coroner and the DMAX HR director.
Several employees, including one who was hit in the foot and survived, are expected to testify later in the trial.
We will continue to follow this story.
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