ANDOVER INDUSTRIES Son was mistreated, shooter's parents say

"They looked at Rick and they knew he was slow. If they were picking people for a job, they always picked him last. People made fun of him because he was different. People were very cruel."
Rosalie Shadle
Rick Shadle's mother
This was the first homicide in Andover in at least 20 years, the police chief said.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
ANDOVER -- Life on the line at Andover Industries was full of petty slights and indignities for Rick Shadle, his parents say.
Shadle was mentally retarded, his parents said, and his disability showed on his face.
The 6-foot-2, 300-pound man also was physically slow, in part because of a blood clot that had been slowly strangling his right leg for five years.
"They looked at Rick, and they knew he was slow," said his mother, Rosalie.
"If they were picking people for a job, they always picked him last. People made fun of him because he was different.
"People were very cruel."
On Tuesday, the 32-year-old Shadle reported to work as usual at 7 a.m., then went back to his home -- a small trailer next to his parents' house about 10 minutes west.
He drove back to the car parts factory, armed with four handguns from his closet.
By 8:35 a.m. the plant manager's assistant, Theodora L. Mosley, 61, of Dorset, had been shot to death and two other workers, Sue Martin, 35, and Joyce Smith, 54, were wounded.
Smith remained in critical condition, and Martin was listed as stable this morning in St. Elizabeth Health Center.
Shadle, of 3932 U.S. Route 6, was also dead by a gunshot, apparently self-inflicted.
Emergency response
The Andover Volunteer Fire Department arrived at the factory first, in response to a fire alarm pulled in the commotion.
By the time they arrived, the gunfire was over and employees had evacuated to the lawn, said training officer Ed Switzer.
Andover police arrived moments later, in response to a 911 call from the plant, which employs 700 workers in three shifts.
This is the first homicide in Andover, population 1,200, in at least 20 years, Police Chief Danny Vild said.
"We are trying to find out what happened and why it happened," said Ashtabula County Sheriff William Johnson. "We might not find it all out, since the perpetrator is deceased."
At Mosley's home, grieving family members gathered.
Her son, Jared Gordon, could barely speak through tears. He said he knew of no problems between Shadle and his mother, who had worked at the plant nine years.
After he came to work Tuesday, Shadle asked for -- and apparently was given -- the rest of the day off to prepare for a doctor's appointment about his leg today, Johnson said.
The leg may have needed to be amputated, his parents said.
Before the shootings, Shadle told his parents he had cancer. He was worried his right leg would need to be amputated because of a grapefruit-size growth.
"He told me he would shoot himself first before he would have that leg amputated," Rosalie Shadle said.
Shadle's father, David, saw him at the house around 8:30 a.m.
"He said something about them not letting him do something at work that he wanted to do," he said.
History of problems
In four or five years at the plant, Shadle had a number of run-ins with other workers and with management, his mother said.
Occasionally, she would call the plant manager to work problems out.
Despite a number of witnesses, Shadle was once suspended for three days after a co-worker blamed him for something he didn't do, she said.
This summer, he got in trouble because he had filled in a vacation request form wrong.
Shadle's parents said their son got upset with Mosley when she told him he had been denied the two-week vacation.
At home, he was quiet and rarely complained. Because of the clot in his leg, Shadle had to spend several hours a day on a machine that kept the limb alive, his parents said.
"He was very quiet. Always loved hugs. Never had a girlfriend -- no girls would pay attention to him," Rosalie Shadle said.
Rick Shadle was "a gentle giant," she said. For fun, he watched television and shot targets in the back yard with his collection of guns.
"He just loved his guns," David Shadle said.
Co-workers told investigators Shadle kept to himself at work.
"He did not socialize with the employees," Johnson said at a press conference shortly after the shooting.
"He did not get along, like normal people would in a job setting."
siff@vindy.com
XCONTRIBUTOR: The Associated Press